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From: gnu@toad.com
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug
Subject: Re: Debugging on the GCC and G++ compilers
Message-ID: <8912120925.AA07060@hop.toad.com>
Date: 12 Dec 89 09:25:38 GMT
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  * The reason you can't execute expressions containing macros in the
debugger is because the debugger doesn't understand macros.  I would
rather we fixed that than re-engineered the compiler.  The schism
between cpp and so-called "source level" debuggers bites me all over
the place (from "stdout" on up).

  *  Turning all those macros into inline functions just leaves you up
the creek for postmortem debugging anyway -- you can't call a function
in a core file!

...Though the debugger could get around that too, 'simulating life
after death', if we worked at it.  File I/O would be hosed, but you
could fork a process, exec the original program, when it stops in
ptrace, clobber it with some code to brk space, copy in the data
and stack segments, then treat it like a process being debugged.

	John