Improved Debugger

[thor]

- When I right click in the memory area and select "Set Top Address", the window is created off screen. It's still usable, but off screen.

- Also related to that window is I can keep clicking "Set Top Address" and it'll keep creating those windows. Maybe just have 1? or make it modal so we can't do anything until the window is closed?

- A minimize window button maybe? Noone else finds it annoying that they can't minimize the debugger window? I always have a huge window open to see more, so it covers my desktop.

- "Set Top Address" for the disassembly window too?

- In-place editing

Done. Patch is ready, but I want to test a bit at the weekend before sending it to Toni.

I loved the ability in AR3 to see where a function starts and ends.

It would be easy to do that but I somewhat doubt Toni will do that

As it's simple I made a quick test for the GUI to see how it would look if I use a line as marker. So I want opinions now for 1) full line as in pic 1, 2) line only in disassembly as in pic 2 or 3) none. I'm slightly favouring option 3 before 2.

Is that option really needed as you can't always tell where a function starts?

One day left for opinions

[AmigaBoy]

Originally Posted by thor

Problem found. Wasn't my fault Has nothing to do with Gamebase.

Originally Posted by thor

Done. Patch is ready, but I want to test a bit at the weekend before sending it to Toni.

Great!

Originally Posted by thor

It would be easy to do that but I somewhat doubt Toni will do that

As it's simple I made a quick test for the GUI to see how it would look if I use a line as marker. So I want opinions now for 1) full line as in pic 1, 2) line only in disassembly as in pic 2 or 3) none. I'm slightly favouring option 3 before 2.

Is that option really needed as you can't always tell where a function starts?

One day left for opinions

I really like the look of option 2. The lines underneath that don't extend all the way. I think it looks good.

You're right. It's not always possible to tell where a function starts. eg:

function test ()
{
    int c = 1;

    if (c == 1)
    {
        return;
    }
    else
    {
        c = 2;
        return;
    }
}

With code like that, even though it's one function, there will be 2 RTS commands and 2 lines, so it's not entirely accurate, but I believe it reproduces the functionality of AR3. Can any AR3 users confirm this?

Anyway, my vote goes to option 2, but I'd like to hear what others think too.

[AmigaBoy]

Another thought/suggestion...

Would it be possible to have the d and m commands display the result into the GUI windows?

So d 40500 would display the disassembly in the GUI, as would m 40500 for the memory area. Or maybe a seperate command for them? dg 40500, mg 40500? I don't know

[thor]

the window is created off screen

For temporary solution until new patch is in beta, go to the WinUAE properties window (F12) once before using the debugger.

Originally Posted by Jason

Anyway, my vote goes to option 2, but I'd like to hear what others think too.

I pretty much thought so But some more opinions would be fine

Originally Posted by Jason

Another thought/suggestion...

Would it be possible to have the d and m commands display the result into the GUI windows?

So d 40500 would display the disassembly in the GUI, as would m 40500 for the memory area. Or maybe a seperate command for them? dg 40500, mg 40500? I don't know

Of course it's possible. But I want to have the normal behaviour of d/m commands so you can quickly have a look at disassembly/memory dump of different location or when in F2 window. dg/mg would be better but I would need to either inspect all input myself before sending to the debugger (not going to do that, as it would be replication of what debugger does), or (as the debugger itself is portable) call a function that only for Windows has the instructions to check for GUI and update, otherwise do nothing. That would be Toni's decision if he wants to have such thing there.

[thor]

1.5.0 b5

- added minimize/maximize/close buttons
- made memory address dialog modal
- added option to set address from context menu for disassembly
note: every command entered will reset disassembly address to PC if 'auto set' is on
- added debugger mg/dg commands for setting memory/disassembly address in GUI (see previous note)
- added line marker after jmp/bra/rts/rte/rtd/rtr
- left mouse button double click can change status register flags
note: FPSR flag changing is more restrictive than CCR flag changing due to WinUAE functions used
(for example you can't have zero and negative flag set at the same time)
- added in-place editing for data/address/floating point registers, disassembly and memory
notes:
* double click left mouse button anywhere in the line you want to edit
* Enter key or clicking outside the edit window with left or right mouse button accepts input
* Escape key or entering nothing useful and action as above rejects input
* FP registers accept what strtod() function accepts minus leading whitespaces which is
[sign] [digits] [.digits] [{d | D | e | E}[sign]digits]

following notes are for memory/disassembly windows only:

* you can't edit unsafe locations (those which are marked with *'s)
* if values get written depends on the bput function for that memory location (for example if you change something in Kickstart memory area, it will not be written)
* it doesn't have to be neatly arranged as intially, so 1234 5678 is treated as same as 12345678 or 123 456 78
* if you remove spaces and enter more bytes than there were previously, the added bytes are rejected
* you need to enter 2 digits for each byte (can be spaces in between) so 1234 is the same as 12345

the window is created off screen

As I removed that code in win32gui_extra.c with the patch which causes the bug (code is currently useless) but Toni wants to keep it, it's not fixed in b5. So it will be addressed (most likely) in b6.

Was the last patch for a while (except for bugfixes or really simple changes) as time is limited and need to take care of other things. But bugreports/suggestions/comments are always appreciated.

The ability to change the height of each of the sections. So I can make the disassembly larger than the memory window for example.

Interested in this one, but not soon.

Dockable/undockable windows....

Doesn't fit with current concept of the different pages and I'm not interested in changing it

[thor]

Interested in this one, but not soon.

Scrap that, will be in one of the next betas.

[AmigaBoy]

I've finally gotten around to testing the latest debugger changes and they're all great! I especially love the in-place memory editing. I didn't know it before, but this is one feature that every debugger should have but never does. It's saved me so much time.
I'm looking forward to seeing the changeable heights for the sections
As for the (un)dockable windows, that was more of a joke over a feature request since it's unnecessary. I know I'd never even use it. I'd much prefer being able to scroll through code and memory since I like to see what happened a few lines before a watchpoint is hit. It's no big deal though

Question. The ALT+A to turn off auto-set is great. Is there any way to keep that off all the time?

You've done an amazing job thor!

[musashi5150]

I hope you haven't been getting up to too much mischief there Jason

I haven't tried the new debugger yet myself, but it sure looks good. thor's efforts are certainly appreciated

[thor]

Thanks Jason and musashi (hi, hope you're doing fine) for your kind words.

I'm looking forward to seeing the changeable heights for the sections

The basic work is done and it's working nicely so far, but there are some things left to do that need to be done before releasing it and I haven't had the time yet to do it, but I hope it will be before 1.5.0 final.

Question. The ALT+A to turn off auto-set is great. Is there any way to keep that off all the time?

I'm a bit confused about this question. In the main F1 window, auto-set is always on and you can't turn it off. In the F5/F6 disassembly windows it's off by default and you can toggle it with clicking on the check-button or pressing Alt+a.

[BippyM]

When exiting the debugger with G winuae's window stays behind the debugger.. Is it possible to have the WinUAE window pop to the front and become focused!

Also as I am debugging can winuae have it's kb layout changed to support easier entry into the debugger?

[thor]

Originally Posted by bippym

When exiting the debugger with G winuae's window stays behind the debugger.. Is it possible to have the WinUAE window pop to the front and become focused!

Most likely it's possible, however it's not GUI specifc (console version behaves the same) and I haven't looked into it.

Also as I am debugging can winuae have it's kb layout changed to support easier entry into the debugger?

In the input panel, change the keyboard configuration from compatibility mode to custom configuration and assign the event "Activate the built-in debugger (0x20C)" to the key you like.

@Jason: Haven't done anything further to complete the changeable heights patch due to lack of time, which will not change soon and in a week I will be away for a week, so I don't really know if it will be ready for 1.5.0 final, sorry about that.

[BippyM]

Hmmm ok with regards window focus (Will bug Toni)..

Also when the debuger invokes is it possible to have the highlighted disassembly in the middle so I can instantly see the commands before and after?

[thor]

Should be possible, I'll test that.

[BippyM]

another feature...

I use either the main window (F1) or one of the debugger windows.. only problem I have is

On Main window how do I scroll through disassembly? I use alt+arrows and I can only scroll memory dump

On Disassembly window (F6) when I step through the code and it jumps to code off screen, the screen doesn't update to where I am tracing.. can this be fixed?

[thor]

Originally Posted by bippym

On Main window how do I scroll through disassembly? I use alt+arrows and I can only scroll memory dump

You can't scroll manually through disassembly in F1 window currently, but it's planned (probably with ctrl+arrow keys)

On Disassembly window (F6) when I step through the code and it jumps to code off screen, the screen doesn't update to where I am tracing.. can this be fixed?

Tick "Auto set" check box.

[BippyM]

Cool

I'm sure i'll have more soon..

what are the odd commands I see BT.l or mvpmr??

[thor]

BT is BRA and MVPMR is MOVEP (d16, Ay), Dx (memory to register), MVPRM is MOVEP Dx, (d16,Ay) (register to memory)

[BippyM]

wouldn't it just be simpler to use the actual mnemonic?

[thor]

I'm not making any changes there and it's not GUI specific, so better ask Toni

[BippyM]

Is it possible to save out chunks of memory as disassembled code?

I'd like to comment what a program is doing and then print it for reference!