Visual D Debugger "complaints" (Mago?)

[Rainer Schuetze via Digitalmars-d-ide]

On 16.06.2016 12:04, ZombineDev wrote:
> On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 05:51:54 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>> [...]
>
>>> 4. Cannot execute commands in the debugger watch such as cast(toChild)x;
>> (see 2)
>>
>> You have to name the type with fully qualified type (e.g.
>> "pgk.module.Child") for the cast operation as the debugger has no
>> symbol lookup information.
>>
>
> For very long time I actually thought that this wasn't possible with
> VisualD, until I discovered that I could use the FQ name by accident. I
> think it would be very helpful if the error message said "try using the
> fully qualified name e.g. package.module.Type", instead of just "symbol
> not found".

I agree, the error message could be more helpful. Long term, I'm hoping 
for the D compiler to emit some lookup information. IIRC GDC does this 
already for DWARF debug info.

>
> For me the biggest problem is that its not clearly visible what
> operations are supported by the debugger and I need to figure this out
> by trial and error.
>
> Is possible to include some short documentation that is displayed e.g.
> when the user clicks a "?" button next to the minimize/restore/close
> buttons on the QuickWatch window?
> Just a short string listing what is currently supported would be a huge
> improvement in terms of discoverability.

The UI is not really under control of the debug engine, but the 
string-view window could be abused for some help message.

>
> BTW, thank for your work on VisualD and improvements to dmd's debug
> info! It's much appreciated!

Thanks.