[rfc] python API exposing inferior's frame stack.
Thiago Jung Bauermann
bauerman@br.ibm.com
Sun Mar 15 18:35:00 GMT 2009
El mar, 10-03-2009 a las 21:35 +0200, Eli Zaretskii escribió:
> > This patch allows a Python script to work with the inferior's frame
> > stack. For now, the only "entry point" for this API is the
> > gdb.selected_frame function.
>
> Thanks. I have a few comments about the documentation part of the
> patch.
Thanks for the review. The comments which I don't reply to below were
addressed.
> > +@defmethod Frame unwind_stop_reason
> > +Return an integer representing the reason why it's not possible to find
> > +frames older than this.
>
> "older"? You mean, higher in the call stack?
I don't know, which direction is "higher in the call stack"? :-)
> Is "older" widespread enough to be self-explanatory?
"older" is the name of the Frame method used to get the previous frame
(where "previous" is the convention used in the GDB source code), so it
has a good chance of being clear to the user of the Python API. In any
case, I reworded it to:
"Return an integer representing the reason why it's not possible to find
frames older (outer) than this."
What do you think?
> > +@defmethod Frame address_in_block
> > +Returns an address which falls within the frame's code block.
> > +@end defmethod
>
> This is unclear to me. Is there only one such address? If not, why
> is that useful to get _an_ address?
The only use I have for this function right now is to obtain an address
to pass to the function gdb.find_pc_function, which returns a gdb.Symbol
object for the function containing the given address.
This usage directly reflects the way things are done in the GDB
internals. Perhaps I should depart from it, remove gdb.find_pc_function
and gdb.Frame.address_in_block and directly provide a gdb.Frame.function
method which returns the gdb.Symbol object for the function
corresponding to the frame?
It sounds like a better idea now that I think about it. But I'll have to
post a patch exposing inferior symbols before I can submit it upstream.
I'll remove gdb.Frame.address_in_block for now, then.
> > +@defmethod Frame older
> > +Return the frame immediately older (outer) to this frame.
> > +@end defmethod
> > +
> > +@defmethod Frame newer
> > +Return the frame immetidaely newer (inner) to this frame.
> > +@end defmethod
>
> Suggest to use "higher" or "above" or "towards the outermost frame".
> Generally, try to use the terminology from the "Examining the Stack"
> chapter of the manual.
IMHO, "inner" and "outer" are already conforming to the terminology from
the "Examining the Stack" chapter. It is a bit awkward to use "towards
the outermost frame" to describe these methods, e.g.:
"Return the next frame in the direction towards the outermost frame."
and
"Return the next frame in the direction towards the innermost frame."
Mmm... Now that I tried, doesn't sound too bad. But still I find my
original wording more direct and simpler to understand. What do you
think?
I'll post an updated patch when we agree on these points.
--
[]'s
Thiago Jung Bauermann
IBM Linux Technology Center
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