[Qt-creator] Some thoughts about 2.5

[André Pönitz]

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 05:21:23AM +0200, Geronimo Ma. Hernandez wrote:
> On Montag 28 Mai 2012, André Pönitz wrote:
> > On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 06:05:49PM +0200, Geronimo Ma. Hernandez wrote:
> > > Again: from my point of view, this behavior of QtCreator is very poor.
> > > With all that parsing effort it should be able to rise an appropriate
> > > error message, telling the user about an outdated gdb or the like.
> > 
> > The log file you sent earlier contains:
> > 
> >    UNSUPPORTED GDB VERSION GNU gdb (GDB) 7.0.1-debian
> 
> Oh sir! A message in a initially hidden window does not count at all!
> I guess no user is interested in the debug log until he likes to work on
> that item or until he encounters problems.

I had the impression you did encounter a problem. Checking with the
usual suspects (Documentation(!), Google, #qt-creator on FreeNode, or
even here on the mailing list) _before_ jumping to generalizing
conclusions would have made sense.

The first hit for "qt creator debugger does not work" at google points to
http://doc.qt.nokia.com/qtcreator-2.5/creator-troubleshooting-debugging.html
and there's section

    Debugger Does Not Work

    If the debugger does not work properly, try the following:

     -  Make sure you use at least Qt Creator 2.1.
     
          [Check, you have that]

     -  Make sure the debugger is set up properly. For more information, see
        Setting Up Debugger.

          [No, you didn't, it contains "The minimal supported version
           is 7.2. Using GDB version 7.4 is highly recommended with
           Qt Creator 2.5"]

     - In the Debug mode, select Windows > Views > Debugger Log to open
       the Debugger Log view. Browse the contents of the pane on the right
       hand side to find out what went wrong. Always attach the contents
       of the pane to debugger-related questions to the Qt Creator mailing
       list (qt-creator at trolltech.com) or paste them to creator.pastebin.com
       before asking questions in the IRC (on the #qt-creator channel at
       FreeNode).

          [No, you didn't do that either, otherwise you'd seen the 
          "UNSUPPORTED GDB VERSION" line in the log]

> Why not pop a messagebox, with a (localized - is QtCreator localized?) 
> message, telling that the gdb is not supported.

Look, that snide "question" in parentheses alone makes me wonder whether
I should try to continue that conversation at all, or whether I should
just sit back and wait for you to walk over to the netbeans or kdevelop
folks instead.

Could you, at the very least, please go to google.com, type in your
question, and check the first two or three entries for potential
hints? Or, in this particular case, maybe check your installation
directory whether there's something containing funny characters,
or perhaps even "translations" in its name?

And since I am at it: Neither "$FOO works like that!" nor "I like it!"
are valid reasons for feature requests. You have to make a point that
it is useful for a lot of people, or, alternatively, a couple of people
but not intrusive.

There have been three such points so far as far as I can tell: better
C++11 support, more flexibility in editor "docking", and Gui support for
"set follow-fork-mode" in the debugger. All three are known, and somehow
on the agenda. However, you managed to drown these three points in a
bulk of accusations like ...

> >From my point of view gdb is as important as the Qt-libraries, as an
> >c++-ide 
> is useless without working debugger.

The requirements for a "working debugger" are fairly clearly documented.
But I said so already. So I guess I better stop now. Have fun.

Andre'