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Re: Deprecating commands; Was: RFC: patch for ...


"J.T. Conklin" wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "Fernando" == Fernando Nasser <fnasser@cygnus.com> writes:
> Fernando> Talking about "bad" commands, what can be worse that the
> Fernando> "set" overloading?  It should only work for gdb control
> Fernando> switches.  The "set var" should be name "assign".  But who
> Fernando> dares to change this after 15+ years...
> 
> If we were to have a different command for setting variables, I'd pick
> "write" over "assign".  However I see this in much the same way as the
> BASIC "LET" keyword --- a useless bit of syntactic sugar.  I'd prefer
> being able to set program variables directly:
> 
>         (gdb) print x
>         $1 = 3
>         (gdb) x = 4
> 
Sure, but on the other hand not having the "set"/"let"/"assign"/"write"
or whatever keyord starts to impose restrictions on variable names.  You
end up with a reserved keyword list that is the union of all languages
supported by gdb.


> but I suspect that would require a major overhaul of the command
> parser.
> 
Yes, it probably would.


> Another issue is that "set" is used to assign convienence variables
> and GDB's internal variables.  I see some merit in actually merging
> these so that scripts can access the values.  There are some issues
> that may make it difficult to do.  For example, many set commands do
> extra error checking that simply setting a convienence variable would
> not; GBD's scripting language has only a global identifier namespace;
> etc.  Nevertheless, I'd love to be able to do this.
> 
Good points.



-- 
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto                       E-Mail:  fnasser@cygnus.com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300           Tel:  416-482-2661 ext. 311
Toronto, Ontario   M4P 2C9              Fax:  416-482-6299

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