Re: Implement -exec-jump

[André Pönitz <andre dot poenitz at nokia dot com>]

On Wednesday 08 April 2009 11:26:49 ext Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > From: =?utf-8?q?Andr=C3=A9_P=C3=B6nitz?= <andre.poenitz@nokia.com>
> > On Wednesday 08 April 2009 09:20:43 Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > > From: Vladimir Prus <vladimir@codesourcery.com>
> > > [...]
> > > > Do you think having a window of time where *development version*
> > > > has an undocumented feature that is primary targeted at *frontend developers*
> > > > is worse than not having that feature at all?
> > > 
> > > Yes, that's what I think.
> > 
> > I disagree.
> 
> Well, you are not responsible for the GDB documentation; I am.

I am a potential user of the feature being discussed.

Vladimir was making a statement on what a frontend developer
is likely to prefer: A feature that is undocumented for a limited
in the development tree _or_ the possibility that the feature does
not get implemented at all.

> If we are going to allow committing undocumented code, I would ask to
> install some procedures to make sure it gets documented eventually.
> For now, I don't have any practical suggestion for such procedures,
> and I cannot be responsible for a job that other maintainers and
> contributors are preventing me to do well.  Please be fair and
> understand where I'm coming from.

I think I fully understand your position, and also that it is the 
"natural stance" for a documentation maintainer. It's just that 
I do not agree with it.

I personally pretty much prefer progress on the MI implementation
side, if that means a few days delay on the documentation,
(or even a small risk of having no documentation at all(!)),
so I am _personally_ fine with it.

> > At worst, I have to look up the exact syntax to use in the
> > sources. No big deal.
> 
> Then why have the manual in the first place?  Let them use the
> sources.

That's a interesting proposal. There is so much stuff, basic stuff 
even, undocumented, so Joe Frontend has to read the sources 
anyway.

As an example: The quoting rules for the CLI are completely 
opaque, but, giving the de-facto non-existence of a binary
interface to gdb, crucial for any frontend.  A frontend can
not just go "type a command" - "hey, gdb does not like it, so 
try to put in a quote or two"...

Regards,
Andre'