[Dev-C++] Various feedback

[Thierry P. <tpi...@gm...>]

Hi there !

I'm using Dev-Cpp (4.9.9.2) for a while now, and I find it good,
though it remains some details that annoy me :

1. Debugger : oh boy, I don't know if it is gdb that's causing so much
trouble, or dev-cpp that causes trouble to gdb, but this feature is
somewhat painful. First of all, sometimes (sorry, I can't be more
precise), when starting debugger dev-cpp process (not gdb.exe, nor the
debugged command) ) eats 100% of a CPU. I try to figure a
deterministic cause, but I'm still searching. Usually having
watchpoint in the Debug tab, or sometimes at the very start, it hangs
like this (dev-cpp is still responding, I think it's one of your
threads that cause this). You have to quit and restart dev-cpp to
retrun to a normal state.

2. The console output of gdb is nearly unusable. That's really
disapointing. Especially you want unusual expressions (like "x/32h
mem" to inspect memory or p command with custom output format). Well,
the problem is that the output is completly trashed among the other
messages. Is it that hard to just log lines received from gdb, from
top to bottom ? If you re using mi interface of gdb, this is just
trivial. If you are redirecting a PTY (not sure Windows can do this
though), okay, this is a little bit harder. BTW, is it normal when
pasting text while focus is on command prompt, text goes to the edit
area instead of that goddam prompt ?

3. Project : okay this is more a feature request, or maybe just a
question. I want to do a simple thing : switch project options
(quickly -- a few keystrokes) from at least two configurations
(usually Debug and Production). For Debug config, I will generate
debug symbols, not strip executable, no gcc optimization, and add a
-DDEBUG when compiling, and so on ... For production, I use "gcc -s
-O2"., etc ... Is there a way to do this without manually and
painfully changing project options ?

4. Code completition : it works almost nice for me. But just a few
minor things that's missing :
- Is there a way to hit a keystroke and list all symbols recognized in
the current file ? This is a feature I loved from another editor : it
applies ctags on the edited buffer, list symbols sorted first by type,
then by symbol name, and you just have to double-click on the symbol,
and it will transport you to its location. Okay, I admit this works
better for C than C++.

- Is there a way, when selecting text and hitting a keystroke, it
searches for its declaration or definition (basically in vim, it can
scan the ctags database and list all symbols that match the selection
: if there is only one, it jumps directly to it (most cases), if there
are several it display a list where you can choose to jump to) ?

Okay, I know, there's already a code browser which updates itself
whenever you open or save a file. But I don't really need a such
h.e.a.v.y. thing.

5. A minor thing : but is it possible to highlight the pattern that's
being searched inside files. I don't know if you are using grep
internally. But GNU grep support the env. var. GREP_COLORS, which will
surround the matched pattern by VT100 codes. When searching among
several hundreed of matches, this helps a bit.

That's all I can remmeber for now. Although I made just criticisms, I
just wanted to say that I like this program, and I hope you're still
on schedule to release the 5.0 version.

Regards,
--
Thierry Pierron