Visual D does not show fields in locals and cannot access through watch

[Rainer Schuetze via Digitalmars-d-ide]

On 15.07.2016 09:55, Eppason wrote:
> On Friday, 15 July 2016 at 06:33:54 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 15.07.2016 02:53, Eppason wrote:
>>> I have private static fields that visual D is not allowing me to see
>>> while debugging. I am flying blind, does not feel good!!
>>
>> You have to specify the fully qualified name including module name in
>> the watch window, i.e.
>>
>> module test;
>>
>> struct S
>> {
>>     int foo()
>>     {
>>         return xyz;
>>     }
>>     static int xyz = 7;
>> }
>>
>> int main()
>> {
>>     S s;
>>     return s.foo();
>> }
>>
>> Depending on the debug engine used, watching S.xyz needs "test.S.xyz"
>> in mago and "test at S@xyz" with the VS engines. Mago has some extra code
>> to allow watching "xyz" when executing S.foo.
>
> Is this not considered a bug? What about for the complex template types
> like
>
> module library.configrators;
> struct PostHardThunk(Test, Actuator).
>
>
> Do I really have to type all that stuff out just to get a watch?
>
> Should the debugger not get the current module and type the cursor is at
> and use them as defaults?
>
>


I agree it can be troublesome, especially with template classes or 
structs. The problem is that the compiler does not emit symbol lookup 
information in the debug information. I think we'll have to add these at 
some point.

What I do sometimes is to look at the disassembly of an access to the 
global/static variable and drag the shown symbol into the watch window. 
Unfortunately, this does not work with thread local variables, because 
these are just relative offsets.