Re: [Boost-users] Debug data structures using aligned storage

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-06-18 16:33:31

Edward Diener <eddielee_at_[hidden]> writes:

> Pierre THIERRY wrote:

>> Le Sat, 17 Jun 2006 18:53:19 -0400, David Abrahams a écrit :

>>> Usually, in the debugger, you cast the base address of the actual

>>> storage to a pointer to the type stored, and go from there.

>> 

>> Thanks a lot, it did the trick! In fact, I immediately ran into problems

>> about namespaces, but I managed to find in recent gdb newsgroups

>> postings how to do...

>> 

>> So now I can debug my varaints! Maybe that could be valuable if such an

>> information was in the Boost documentation?

>

> What Dave suggested is standard information for anyone using a debugger 

> in C++. Putting that in the Boost documentation is unnecessary.

I disagree.  Certainly Pierre's experience belies that statement.

More generally, variant presents a high-level abstraction, and users

aren't necessarily expected to have any idea how it works internally.

For the most part, a naive user with a good debugger can explore his

program's data structures at will, but unlike almost any other library

component, variant is a barrier to the type information the debugger

needs.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com