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The <strong>LLDB</strong> Debugger | |
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<h1 class ="postheader">Goals</h1> | |
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<p>The current state of the art in open source debuggers are that | |
they work in the common cases for C applications, but don't | |
handle many "hard cases" properly. For example, C++ expression | |
parsing, handling overloading, templates, multi-threading, and | |
other non-trivial scenarios all work in some base cases, but | |
don't work reliably.</p> | |
<p>The goal of LLDB is to provide an amazing debugging experience that "just | |
works". We aim to solve these long-standing problems where debuggers get | |
confused, so that you can think about debugging your problem, not | |
about deficiencies in the debugger.</p> | |
<p>With a long view, there is no good reason for a debugger to | |
reinvent its own C/C++ parser, type system, know all the | |
target calling convention details, implement its own disassembler, | |
etc. By using the existing libraries vended by the LLVM | |
project, we believe that many of these problems will be defined | |
away, and the debugger can focus on important issues like | |
process control, efficient symbol reading and indexing, thread | |
management, and other debugger-specific problems.</p> | |
<p>Some more specific goals include:</p> | |
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<li>Build libraries for inclusion in IDEs, command line tools, and | |
other analysis tools</li> | |
<li>High performance and efficient memory use</li> | |
<li>Extensible: Python scriptable and use a plug-in architecture</li> | |
<li>Reuse existing compiler technology where it makes sense</li> | |
<li>Excellent multi-threaded debugging support</li> | |
<li>Great support for C, Objective-C and C++</li> | |
<li>Retargetable to support multiple platforms</li> | |
<li>Provide a base for debugger research and other innovation</li> | |
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