Hi everyone,

On Windows, for those using Visual Studio or VS Code with MSVC compiler, the only way to see anything sensible when debugging is to use a natvis file.

This natvis file is currently embedded into the VsTools extension for Visual Studio, here:
https://github.com/qt-labs/vstools/blob/dev/QtVsTools.Package/qt6.natvis.xml

If you use Visual Studio, and use the extension, you normally have nothing to do as it will be deployed for you.

Unfortunately, I see some issues here:
1) The file is really behind (the Qt5 one was better IMO), and there's no real contributions to it, but rather external ones like:
https://github.com/aleksey-nikolaev/natvis-collection/blob/master/QJson.natvis
2) You can't just copy and use the file because of the "##NAMESPACE##:: everywhere
3) If you use VSCode, you have to embed it in the project

As a VSCode user, I'm doing 3), but it's not really any better as I'm missing any updates on it. I know there's now a Qt VSCode extension, with the natvis file integrated too, but I couldn't get it to work properly.

I think a better solution would be to have the natvis files embedded into the pdb on Windows, for multiple reasons: - no need to set a natvis file on VSCode or VS for those not using the extension, - in case of internal changes for the Qt classes, we could adapt the file and ty it to a specific Qt version,
- slightly more visible place for people to contribute.

Another solution, at least better than right now, would be to have a repo for the natvis, that could be used by both the VsTools extension and the VSCode extension. Not my best choice, but at least it will give a better visibility to it and reduce the pain to contributions.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Nicolas

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Nicolas Arnaud-Cormos | Senior Software Engineer & Teamlead
KDAB (France) S.A.S., a KDAB Group company
Tel: France +33 (0)4 90 84 08 53,https://www.kdab.com
KDAB - Trusted Software Excellence
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