How to implement an abbreviated view of a class type

How to implement an abbreviated view of a class type

[Mary Ma]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 964 bytes --]

Dear all,

I am currently working on implementing pretty printing views for some class types in both GUI-based GDB, such as VS Code, and GDB command line interface. These types contain nested classes and multiple levels of inheritance.

However, the challenge I'm facing is that the command line interface displays all the information of a class type at once including inheritance, properties, subclasses. This makes the output overwhelming for developers, especially when encountering cyclic structures.

For instance, it's possible that Type A points to Type B and vice versa, creating a cyclic relationship that makes the view look messy.

I am wondering if there are ways to present an abbreviated view of a type and allow developers to have further control over the amount of detail in the output, depending on what developers want to see.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or ideas from you. Thank you in advance!

Best regards,
Mary

Re: How to implement an abbreviated view of a class type

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Wed, 24 May 2023 18:07:06 +0000
> From: Mary Ma via Gdb <gdb@sourceware.org>
> 
> However, the challenge I'm facing is that the command line interface displays all the information of a class type at once including inheritance, properties, subclasses. This makes the output overwhelming for developers, especially when encountering cyclic structures.
> 
> For instance, it's possible that Type A points to Type B and vice versa, creating a cyclic relationship that makes the view look messy.
> 
> I am wondering if there are ways to present an abbreviated view of a type and allow developers to have further control over the amount of detail in the output, depending on what developers want to see.

Did you try using the 'explore' command?

There are also several settings for the 'print' command, all of them
starting with "set print type".

RE: How to implement an abbreviated view of a class type

[Mary Ma]

Hello Eli,

Thank you for your help.

The interactive feature of the 'explore' command is exactly what we are looking for. However, based on my investigation, it appears that I can only explore the default view of a type using the 'explore' command. Is it possible to explore the custom view defined by pretty printing function?

Please let me know if this is feasible and if there are any additional steps needed to achieve this. I appreciate your assistance.

Best regards,
Mary

-----Original Message-----
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 2:27 PM
To: Mary Ma <maryma@mathworks.com>
Cc: gdb@sourceware.org
Subject: Re: How to implement an abbreviated view of a class type

> Date: Wed, 24 May 2023 18:07:06 +0000
> From: Mary Ma via Gdb <gdb@sourceware.org>
> 
> However, the challenge I'm facing is that the command line interface displays all the information of a class type at once including inheritance, properties, subclasses. This makes the output overwhelming for developers, especially when encountering cyclic structures.
> 
> For instance, it's possible that Type A points to Type B and vice versa, creating a cyclic relationship that makes the view look messy.
> 
> I am wondering if there are ways to present an abbreviated view of a type and allow developers to have further control over the amount of detail in the output, depending on what developers want to see.

Did you try using the 'explore' command?

There are also several settings for the 'print' command, all of them starting with "set print type".