On Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 10:33 AM Jim Ingham <jing...@apple.com> wrote:
> One of the fundamental goals of lldb is that it be an extensible > debugger. The extension mechanism for command line lldb all runs through > the SB API through either Python or C++ (though most folks choose to use > Python). We know first hand that many people take advantage this mechanism > to add custom commands specific to their workflows. Again, look at the xnu > macros for an example if you remain unconvinced of this. Facebook also > made a nice set of extension commands for introspecting UI elements when > debugging iOS apps. And every WWDC folks come with questions about how to > implement some command or other. If this doesn’t convince you also check > out the effort the gdb folks have made and continue to make to support the > Python extensions to what is purely a command-line debugger. > > Not to mention that most of the powerful things you can do with breakpoint > callbacks are available through the SB API's, and most sophisticated data > formatters are written in Python. And again based on questions and bug > reports we get there are many people using this facility. > > I’ve said this many times before, but the notion that the SB API’s are not > a crucial part of the command-line lldb experience shows a fundamental > misperception of the design of lldb. > > Jim > I don't disagree with this, only with the notion that every test is best written by involving the extensibility layer in the test. A fundamental and universal principle of good test design is writing tests that test the minimal amount of code necessary to verify a piece of functionality. You don't *need* an extensibility layer to check if you can stop at a breakpoint. The fact that the extensibility mechanism provides a way of stopping at breakpoints just means you should *also* have a test that says "did the extensibility mechanism properly tell the debugger to stop at a breakpoint?". And, of course you can (and should) also have full integration tests that check the extensibility mechanism end-to-end. But they just should not be the first and only line of defense.
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