[Qt-creator] Creator 3.1 and GDB builds without Python scripting

[Poenitz Andre]

Tim Sander [tim at krieglstein.org] wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 31. Dezember 2013, 02:51:09 schrieb André Pönitz:
> > Old story, next attempt: For Creator 3.1 I'd like to discontinue
> > support for GDB builds that do not have Python scripting enabled.
> > [...]
> > Right now I believe this does not affect anyone really badly anymore.
> >
> Well unfortunatly lots of cross compilers for Winblows like e.g. this one
> https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded don't have Python enabled. 
> I think the reason is that nativly compiling gdb is
> no fun on Windows and cross compiling with Python support is pretty
> complicated. I failed in my attempts to cross compile gdb with Pyhton enabled.
> I know its possible -as Qt has an gdb with Python enabled- but unfortunatly
> building it, is not so straight forward as one would like.

Mainstream gdb has the feature for more than four years, and by now it's 
in active use also outside Qt Creator, e.g. "Standard" libstdc++ pretty-printing 
depends on it unconditionally. I think in 2014 it's reasonable to call a non-Python 
gdb build "severely crippled".

I agree that building it on Windows is indeed not as straightforward as one might 
wish, but it's a one-time effort "per toolchain". We used homemade Python 
enabled (non-cross) builds since <7.2, before the official MinGW builds 
came with Python. No fun, but doable, and factoring in the weight of the use case 
"cross-developing embedded non-Qt applications from a Windows host" I am 
afraid it's not enough to stop the train.

Regards,
Andre'