Re: [Anjuta-list] [Fwd: Valgrind & Anjuta 2]

[Naba Kumar <kh_naba gmx net>]

Hi all,

We have been forwarded this email in our mailing list and find it
interesting.

> This type of IDE integration is something that is of great interest to 
> us at LANL.  We have launched a project called the Eclipse Parallel 
> Tools Platform (see http://www.eclipse.org/ptp/).  Valgrind-based tools 
> being integrated into this environment would be of interest to us.  To 
> start, doing an Eclipse Rich Client Interface for them would be great. 
> This would allow them to be used as standalone tools with GUIs or used 
> as plugins to the Eclipse IDE.  We're always looking for folks who are 
> interested in collaborating on projects like this with us.  If this 
> would be of interest to you, please contact me directly.

We would definitely like to have such an integration and I will
give a brief idea of how such integration is possible. However,
we are rather resource limited and hence will not be in a position
to implement it. If there are people interested in such
integration, we will be glad to offer help with the implementation.

There are basically three levels of integration currently possible
with Anjuta (2.0).

1) The classic "run and show stdout/stderr in message pane":
This is the most basic way of 'integration' and doesn't even
need an implementation. The user can simply set up the tool in
preferences. Apart from showing the outputs, there is no
interaction between Anjuta and the tool. However, I believe,
this is not the kind of integration you are expecting.

2) CLI interface: If valgrind supports some kind of CLI interface
(ala gdb), and I am not sure if such interface is even required
for valgrind, Anjuta can have a plugin that proxies valgrind's
CLI interface to IDE's GUI (menus and windows). This is actually
a very complicated integration and rather prone to breakages.
If full blown CLI is not required for valgrind, at least
having a machine parsable outputs (e.g. xml) could make it easier.

3) API interface: This is the best and most preferred way for
the integration. In this case, valgrind offers a library that
an Anjuta plugin proxies to the IDE's internal interfaces.

In case(2) and case(3), the integration requires developing
an Anjuta plugin, but that is the least difficult part since
it will hardly span more than one source file.

I hope someone wishing to implementation such an integration would
find it useful.

Thanks.

Regards,
-Naba