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gmit
Whole Tomato Software
Croatia
90 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 22 2007 : 03:35:38 AM
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There is one feature I miss during debugging (and, for example, it's offered in IDA). I would like to have a Find Constant dialog similar to Find Symbol - when a numeric value is entered, the list will show defines, enums and, possibly, const ints which equals to the entered value.
I was wondering - are there more people that would like such feature.
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sl@sh
Tomato Guru
Switzerland
204 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2007 : 04:05:39 AM
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Not sure how well this would work for enums, as those don't need to be assigned explicitely - it would require VAX to explicitely generate a list of enum integer values.
Apart from that I can see the appeal: replacing explicit constant values with previously defined symbols.
There already was a suggestion to generate a constant symbol if for some value no symbol exists yet. Maybe the above suggestion could be combined with that one. |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2007 : 1:47:48 PM
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Calculating the enum's is not to big a problem.
What do you mean by a "constant"? For example what about
#define MY_INT long
Or the enum:
enum Shapes { TRIANGLE, SQUARE, CIRCLE };
I am a great believer in constants as constants, rather than hard coded in 3,000 places, but most of my enum's and #defines have nothing to do with numeric or string constants.
So the idea of a central list of constants is appealing, but what gets put in it, and how do you find the occasional constant when it is surrounded by a mass of other "things". |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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gmit
Whole Tomato Software
Croatia
90 Posts |
Posted - Oct 22 2007 : 2:17:56 PM
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By constants, I mean:
#define abc 3
const int def = 3;
enum {ghi = 4};
In dialog like 'find symbol', there could be listed:
abc 3
def 3
ghi 4
If in code you see something like:
a = b + 3
and the cursor is positioned over 3, after a command is invoked, VA could say that symbols abc and def are equal to 3 and can offer to change 3 to the selected symbol.
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sl@sh
Tomato Guru
Switzerland
204 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2007 : 10:48:28 AM
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| The problem I see with enums is that when you use a lot, or just include a lot of sytem headers, you will end up with dozens or even hundreds of symbols equalling the constant '1'! |
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - Oct 23 2007 : 5:07:24 PM
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Let me rephrase the question. How does VA which of these is a constant:
enum Shapes { TRIANGLE = 1, SQUARE, CIRCLE };
enum {ghi = 4};
They both might be constants, or neither of them are constants. It needs some form of definition to separate out constants from "other things that look a bit like constants", or else you are just right back to the current FSIW dialog.
As soon as you look at enum's sl@sh is quite right, for any number under 10 you are likely to get far to many entries. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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gmit
Whole Tomato Software
Croatia
90 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2007 : 03:06:12 AM
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To sl@sh:
That's exactly what I want. Some filtering (system-project) and by letter (like in find symbol window) will help in narrowing down the choice.
To feline:
I would expect all of them to be showed: TRIANGE as 1, SQUARE as 2, CIRCLE as 3 and ghi as 4.
OK, some more explanation. It's certainly not a feature I cannot live without; I just wanted to see if there are possibly more people that want this (obviously not).
I first saw the feature in IDA disassembler where it works rather nicely:
step 1 - http://tinyurl.com/365cg7
step 2 - http://tinyurl.com/377xu2
Recently I had to done some asm debugging in VS in which I had to track window messages; each was a hex number, so, I've had to manually find it in includes. At the same time, a friend of mine complained that his code is full of fixed constants that are difficult to rid of... So, I though it might be convenient to have such feature...
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feline
Whole Tomato Software
United Kingdom
19021 Posts |
Posted - Oct 24 2007 : 08:42:26 AM
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Personally I see the appeal, but I also see some practical concerns.
Looking at the Find Symbol dialog in VA 1614 I am seeing the following:
Some of the values you are seeing in the definition column (the ones with a + sign) are calculated by VA for enum items. So the constant values are often listed here, but you do still have the problem of finding the item you want. |
zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness |
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search for constant
