Re: [Boost-docs] Visual Studio 2012 .natvis visualization for boost::shared_ptr

Subject: Re: [Boost-docs] Visual Studio 2012 .natvis visualization for boost::shared_ptr
From: Matias Capeletto (matias.capeletto_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-08-31 06:26:51

Hello Philip,

On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 2:33 AM, Philip Dunstan <phil_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> The wiki page at https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/DebuggerVisualizers
> (with its link to the existing debug visualizers in the boost svn
> repository) was the closest thing I found to ownership of debug visualizers.
> If this is not the correct way to make this submission will you please help
> me find the appropriate course of action.

I think this is a good place to start. Filip Konvička was the one
pushing forward the current VS visualizers (his contact is at the
bottom of that page). He may not be in this list, you could contact
him for more details.

> I'd like to submit a Visual Studio 2012 .natvis file for visualizing
> boost::shared_ptr and boost::weak_ptr within Visual Studio 2012. The .natvis
> file is a replacement visualization scheme to the autoexp.dat file as
> described in
> http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsdesktop/Writing-type-visualizers-2eae77a2

You can get a Trac user id
(https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki#GettingaTracSVNUserid) and
update the wiki yourself. You can create a new section (or a new wiki
page linked from there) for VS 2012 visualizers and start populating
it. At the beginning you can offer a download link from there and when
you fill more confident and there is enough covered you can ask for
inclusion in the boost tree. If you want, it will also be good to
explain there how you were able to implement this and later send a
mail to the main boost developer list to get some attention, maybe
others have or will implement VS 2012 visualizers for other boost
libraries.

> I should always note, For consistency with the visualizations of Microsoft's
> std::shared_ptr and std::weak_ptr I have based these visualizations heavily
> on the visualizations that Microsoft have provided in stl.natvis in the
> VS2012 distribution. I have been unable to find any copyright notice for the
> Microsoft visualizations and am therefore unsure whether these are suitable
> for distribution as part of boost.

I think this is how MS expect people to make they own visualizers, so
I will not worry about that. Let see what others have to say.

Best regards
Matias