Hi all,

The local values provided by debuggers contain very basic data, which in most cases isn't helpful at all. We are using dumpers/extensions to convert these data into user friendly information. Python based dumpers have been used for quite a long time now when debugging with GDB. The LLDB engine also dumps values via these dumpers. Both debuggers provide a python interpreter and interface allowing to access debugger internals from python code. In contrast: the CDB engine uses an extension (dll) loaded into the debugger to collect data and dump values. This requires us to maintain two different approaches on dumping values. Unfortunately the CDB doesn't provide a
python interface.
So, let's introduce one.
First step was to lower the barrier for new debuggers using the python dumpers by reducing the interface required by our dumpers to a minimum. Big thanks to Andre to take care of that. Next step was to provide all necessary information from the CDB in a python module that can be accessed by the python dumper, fortunately this task was easier than expected. Final step and currently in process is packaging and delivering the extension with Qt Creator. And here comes the downside: We need to accept a new license (https://docs.python.org/3.5/license.html) when using the python enabled CDB extension. The idea is to have an extra component (selected by default) for the CDB extension when installing Qt Creator on Windows. This way you could still use Qt Creator without accepting the license, but you won't be able to debug
with CDB.

Any opinions regarding the python license or the dumper topic in general?

Whoever want to test the python based dumpers need to define an environment
variable PYTHON_INSTALL_DIR that points to a Python 3.5 installation matching the bitness of your Qt before building Qt Creator. The same path needs to be added to the PATH environment variable before executing Qt Creator. Feel free to contact me
on any available channel if you encounter any problems.

TL;DR: I want to use python in the CDB extension. Debugging with the CDB will require accepting a new license (https://docs.python.org/3.5/license.html). For testing: Define PYTHON_INSTALL_DIR pointing to a python 3.5 installation before building Qt Creator and
add python to your PATH before executing Qt Creator.

Greetings
David

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