[Nemiver-list] Nemiver Speed

[Don Scorgie <Don domain hid>]

(I'm not subscribed, so please CC me on any replies)

I made a comment on my blog about nemiver being slow [1] and was asked
to explain myself ;)

I'm using Nemiver 0.4.0-ubuntu4 (default in Ubuntu Gutsy) with gdb 6.6.
My prior experience with visual debugging is using WinDbg [2] for kernel
debugging on Windows.

The slowness I've seen is when stepping through and into functions.
When stepping through, the interface seems to take some time to respond
- the toolbar is unresponsive for a few seconds each step.  Stepping
into functions seems to be the same.  My initial thought was that
Nemiver is querying gdb for each local variable again.

Some numbers, if that helps at all.  Debugging yelp from SVN head.
Stepping into or over in a function takes around 4 seconds [3] before
the UI is responsive again.  Don't know if this is considered slow, but
to me it feels like it [4].

Apart from that I noticed a couple of other points:
1. Figuring out the current line and where break points are is somewhat
difficult in the current version (small symbols in the left gutter).  A
better  or complimentary solution (IMHO) would be to highlight the
current line with the selection colour and the breakpoint lines with
<urgent highlight colour>.
2. It's difficult to tell when the project is running and when it's
broken in (at a glance).  Point 1 would help with this, but maybe adding
a status <bar/toolbar item/something else> with the current status
("running", "broken in at break point","broken in due to SEGV"...).
3. Sometimes gdb compiles out symbols.  The first time I encountered
this, I thought Nemiver / gdb was broken as it couldn't find the symbol
and wouldn't put any tool-tip up with the value.  It'd be nice to put a
tool-tip like "Symbol not available" up when hovering.

Anyway, Nemiver rocks.  Thanks for working on it, and keep it up.  It's
definitely made my life in GNOME easier and more fun.

Cheers
Don

[1] http://donscorgie.livejournal.com/12070.html
[2] http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
[3] Athlon XP 2600+ CPU, 1 Gb of RAM.
[4] For comparison, WinDbg can step over / into functions less than a
second on similar hardware.