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Re: Will therefore GDB utilize C++? Not.
On 04/06/2012 04:32 PM, John Gilmore wrote:
And yet, that's exactly what we are doing:
- unit elaboration;
- gdbarch/language dispatching
- exception handling
- use of unions to emulate polymorphism;
Writing modular programs is a good idea even if we don't do it in C++.
I have heard it claimed that many techniques of modular programming
were even invented before C++ existed - though that may be doubted.
If a discussion about the design of C++ adds little to the discussion
about converting gdb to C++, I think that discussing the origins of
modular or object-oriented programming offers even less.
If people have the energy to rewrite large chunks of GDB, why argue
about it? Go off and do it. It's free software -- you don't even
have to start from scratch like GNU did. The world can always use a
new debugger. You can make a politically correct debugger (pcdb?)
with an identical interface but a C++ implementation under the hood.
If it's better than GDB in the long run, maintainers will migrate to
it, GDB will fall into disrepair, and GNU will adopt it.
That is actually not that bad an idea. This isn't a matter of
political correctness, but one of technical merit.
--
Michael Eager eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306 650-325-8077