Debugging Visual D using Visual D

[Rainer Schuetze via Digitalmars-d-debugger]

On 16.08.2017 08:32, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
> 
> 
> On 16.08.2017 04:49, Johnson wrote:
>>      VisualD.dll    C:\Program Files (x86)\VisualD\Debug\VisualD.dll 
>> N/A    Yes    Symbols loaded.    C:\Program Files 
>> (x86)\VisualD\Debug\VisualD.pdb    229    0.45.1-rc2    12/31/1969 
>> 7:00 PM    13FB0000-143C0000*    [8972] devenv.exe
>>      VisualD.dll    C:\Program Files (x86)\VisualD\VisualD.dll    N/A 
>> Yes    Cannot find or open the PDB file.        271    0.45.1-rc2 
>> 12/31/1969 7:00 PM    18D40000-1904E000*    [8972] devenv.exe
>>
>>
>> I was finally able to get it to work. Something is wonky. I think it's 
>> when I use a normal VS side by side with the experimental that the 
>> experimental can't find the symbols and somehow the registry changes I 
>> made got reset.
>>
>> So far it is working(I can hit BP's) but it's still basically the same 
>> scenario in that I have to completely shut down VS in order to reload 
>> visualD. Before I could automate because the normal visual studio 
>> instance could stay open... but it seems like it screws up the 
>> debugging symbols and such.
>>
>> I could try to use another, different exp instance(different registry) 
>> but I feel the same problem might occur.
>>
>> But I guess it's better than nothing.
>>
> 
> Good to hear it (kind of) works now. VS2015 also resets the 
> configuration rather often, so it's good to automate the patching.
> 
> I don't have troubles with exchanging the debug DLL while having the 
> normal VS instance running. Maybe you have experimented with registry 
> changes that now cause the debug DLL to be loaded there, too? 
> Reinstalling Visual D should help in that case (though that will trigger 
> rebuilding the user configuration).
> 
> I've tried to figure out why both DLLs are actually loaded (it has been 
> bugging me before, too), but could not find the cause yet.

I managed to load the Debug DLL into the "experimental" VS without any 
(explicit) registry patching:

1. delete 
HOME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_<id>Exp\privateregistry.bin 
to make sure to start from scratch

2. copy "c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual 
Studio\2017\Community\Common7\IDE\Extensions\Rainer Schuetze\VisualD" to 
"%HOME%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\15.0_<id>Exp\Extensions\Rainer 
Schuetze\VisualD"

3. replace paths in Extensions\Rainer 
Schuetze\VisualD\0.45\visuald.pkgdef to point to the debug DLL

4. start "devenv /RootSuffix Exp"

5. enable "Visual D" in the "Extensions and Updates..." dialog

6. restart VS

This even doesn't load the DLL twice for me.