issues solved

[Cristian Vlasceanu]

Hi All
I am forced into retracting what I have said a few days ago:
"I have already email Walter about this issue and as he is slow as usual 
in addressing Linux back-end issues [...]"

Mea culpa.

Walter was very responsive (just to spite me? :)) and after a few nights 
of email exchanges and hacking that went well after 2AM, we found that:

1) the DW_AT_comp_dir piece of DWARF debug info, which gives the build 
path of a translation unit was being output correctly by the DMD compiler;

2) however, because it was in the DW_FORM_strp (offset to a string) 
form, rather than a plain DW_FORM_string, the linkers on some systems 
took the liberty to mess with it (see 
http://sourceware.org/ml/gdb/2002-04/msg00144.html:

"Some linkers (including the GNU linker) can remove duplicate strings 
from an executable's .debug_str section, and adjust DW_FORM_strp 
references to point to the remaining unique copies.")

3) The resolution was to use DW_FORM_string, and everything works 
correctly now.


Also, we have agreed upon the debug formats for dynamic D arrays and 
associative arrays.

I have implemented support for the former in ZeroBUGS, and it will go 
out soon.

After I get the new builds out, I will start looking into debugger 
support for associative arrays (although I cannot promise to deliver 
anything in the very near future, due to expecting a new family addition 
any minute now).

cheers,
    Cristian Vlasceanu (http://www.zerobugs.org)