feedc0de/qt-creator
1
0
Fork 0
forked from qt-creator/qt-creator
Code Pull Requests Activity

doc: add a few lines about the purpose of debugging helpers

Browse Source 
Change-Id: Ic07a3d6593fd2ea45f7a80585095c8fe22a845bb
Reviewed-by: Leena Miettinen <riitta-leena.miettinen@nokia.com>
This commit is contained in:
hjk
2012-05-30 16:56:38 +02:00
committed by Leena Miettinen
parent 1267f3fe44
commit 98ad3aac66
1 changed files with 40 additions and 0 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

40
doc/src/debugger/creator-debugger.qdoc
View File

@@ -767,6 +767,46 @@
\title Using Debugging Helpers \title Using Debugging Helpers
Structured data, such as objects of \c class, \c struct, or \c union
types, is displayed in the \gui{Locals and Expressions} view as part
of a tree.
To access sub-structures of the objects, expand the tree nodes.
The sub-structures are presented in their in-memory order, unless
the \gui{Sort Members of Classes and Structs Alphabetically} option
from the context menu is selected.
Similarly, pointers are displayed as a tree item with a single child
item representing the target of the pointer. In case the
context menu item
\gui{Dereference Pointers Automatically} is selected, the pointer
and the target are combined into a single entry, showing the name
and the type of the pointer and the value of the target.
This standard representation is good enough for the examination
of simple structures, but it does usually not give enough insight into
more complex structures, such as \c QObjects or associative containers.
These items are internally represented by a complex arrangement of
pointers, often highly optimized, with part of the data not directly
accessible through either sub-structures or pointers.
To give the user simple access also to these items, \QC employs
so-called Debugging Helpers. Debugging Helpers come in two varieties,
compiled, and Python based, depending on the selected
\l{glossary-development-target}{target}.
By default, Debugging Helpers are automatically and transparently used.
To disable them, select \gui Tools > \gui Options > \gui Debugger >
\gui {Locals & Expressions}, and deselect the \gui{Use Debugging Helper}
check box.
\QC ships with Debugging Helpers for about 80 of the most
popular Qt classes, Standard C++ containers and smart pointers,
covering the usual needs of a C++ application developer out-of-the-box.
The following sections describe how to extend the debugging helpers
to your own data types.
There are two approaches to displaying complex data types. The first and There are two approaches to displaying complex data types. The first and
original one is to use debugging helpers based on C++. While it has been original one is to use debugging helpers based on C++. While it has been
superseded on most platforms by the more robust and more flexible second superseded on most platforms by the more robust and more flexible second