NetBeans and Debugging – Conclusions

Enough time has now been spent debugging with NetBeans to make some conclusions. After some adjusting, using the GDB debugger under NetBeans appears to be easier then using Insight, the  GUI front-end to GDB. The two are definitely different and initially it appeared that is was more difficult looking inside classes with NetBeans, but this was not the case. NetBeans puts the active local variables for each code line executed in the Variables window automatically and it's very easy to step into them to look at the contents.

With Insight, the variables first need to be added to the Watch window. Insight is never aware of allocated arrays for pointer members – it treats them as simply pointers. If you want to look at the contents of a particular array element, another variable needs to be added to the Watch window. And if too many variables are added to the Watch window, Insight becomes unstable (crashes). NetBeans usually appears to be aware of arrays and lets you descend into which ever element you want to look at.

In Insight there is no way to edit a Watch variable name, say to look at a different array element – it must be deleted and a new one entered (a lot of typing). In NetBeans, the watch variables can be edited (using Customize). Though disconcerting, with the jVi plugin installed, NetBeans requires the use of Vi commands in the New Watch and it starts in command mode – this will take a little getting used to. One last thing about the jVi plugin – sometimes it just stops working (NetBeans returns to its default editor). Restarting NetBeans corrects the problem.

In conclusion, NetBeans nicely integrates everything, therefore, development will be transferred to the NetBeans IDE with CVSNT (see next post on how this was made to work). The next release of the source will include the necessary files to build with NetBeans (development with VIDE2 will now be abandoned).