GDB: Text User Interface, TUI not supported

[Montserrat]

I was looking for a windows compatible gdb frontend and its very frustating, but i just found that gdb has this text user interface wich displays all the info in the terminal...just need to invoke gdb with the "-tui" argument.

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exd_p4K675o

Unfortunately:

"m68k-elf-gdb.exe: TUI mode is not supported"

Google says that it needs to be build on purpose whit that feature, but well i dont know how, it is posible to have a new windows build with TUI enabled?

[Chris McClelland]

I wrote this, 4.5 years ago[1]:

"The Windows build really needs an owner, someone who has the patience to make it work and help other people on the mailing-list. Volunteers welcome!"

I got no volunteers, so the Windows build is kinda orphaned, unfortunately.

[1]https://github.com/makestuff/umdkv2/wiki/Building-on-Windows

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UMDKv2 Developers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to umdkv2-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/umdkv2-dev/1cbe1f17-7388-4970-b3dd-6828596d7439n%40googlegroups.com.

[Montserrat]

...yeah i see...i would like to volunteer....but i dont know where to start.

Several years ago you told me that i better learn some programing skills before getting into this...well... i did and know i have the confidence to try again with megadrive assembly. But all those years the walls are the same... toolchain, init code, and above all , a didactic aproach for the uninitiated (like me). Most people interested in megadrive are just hardcore, passionate  sega fans like me and need help. Of course we have SGDK, but that is another story.

My "secret" plan was to recopilate a windows toolchain, and start a series of tutorials about megadrive programing in assembly, using the umdk/emulators...but with a new perspective, more "mundane", like i said a didactic aproach.

Even was thinking to make some sort of visual studio code plugin to "frontend" gdb, or maybe a standalone  one, by using GDB/MI api... That was the "SECRET" plan, because its a massive long term plan due to my limited skillset.

At this moment i cannot "own" a project like this, or even help others, because i dont know the stuff myself, but i will find a way....i think.

[csmith]

On 11/01/2022 17:06, Montserrat wrote:
> I was looking for a windows compatible gdb frontend and its very
> frustating, but i just found that gdb has this text user interface
> wich displays all the info in the terminal...just need to invoke gdb
> with the "-tui" argument.

You could use one of the X tools, Linux for Windows officially
maintained port within Windows 10 or something similar to get a working
X application up and running under Windows in the meantime.

Eons ago in the late 90s/early 2000s we used to use Cygwin.

I began a new job in 2019 and had to use Windows 10. Lo' and behold: I
found out that Linux was officially supported under Windows 10!  This
kind of made my "Windows experience" a little more palatable :)

It's worth a try.

It may be worth asking Matt of Big Evil Corp/Tanglewood fame if he'd be
open to supporting a Windows UMDK Port.

[csmith]

Sorry, I failed to add: you can use Eclipse or DDD[1] running a GDB session and then attach to it once you have the GDB-Bridge running.

You only need something that can handle X based applications to use DDD and it's fairly light-weight.

I used it often for projects both Embedded and Terminal.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/

On 11/01/2022 17:06, Montserrat wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/umdkv2-dev/8db64de7-8558-429b-846f-5b8d053d5b68n%40googlegroups.com.

[Chris McClelland]

Actually, a similar idea could work: on Windows 10 there's a thing called WSL2 which is basically a Linux system running under Windows. Apparently it has USB device support[1], and VSCode has a very nice "remote-wsl2" extension[2] that makes working within WSL2 a pleasure. Tell VSCode about the 68000-flavour gdb, and things should work quite well. You can also get extensions that will do clangd indexing (for code navigation and intellisense) and syntax-highlighting for C code. I daresay there will be assembler extensions too. Technically you're working on Linux, but it feels like you're still in Windows, if that floats your boat.

Chris

[1]https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/2195

[2]https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2019/09/03/wsl2

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UMDKv2 Developers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to umdkv2-dev+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/umdkv2-dev/16244704-bb78-2b70-ca95-8b945dfa61b6%40gmail.com.

[Montserrat]

Thanks Minty,  already knew of those options, but i was looking for a solution that does not involve linux (or the subsystem). Not for linux per se, im comfortable and use it everyday in work, but for the target "newbie" has to be windows, for the inconvenience too-much-toolchain-dependencies-install-hell, and cygwin has the same problem.

Think I prefer investing some time on building gdb with tui support, and obtain out-of-the-box functionality, also it can be integrated in visual studio code (as terminal) wich I use as IDE. 

My idea is to combat the initial frustration of trying to make simple stuff work.

I'm sorry to be that picky, thanks for your help!

[Montserrat]

Finally managed to build GDB 11.1 with support for TUI, its not the best thing ever but its better than a simple CLI. 

Although i've compiled it with cygwin and i dont know how to make the executable "standalone". it depends on several cygwin libraries... not very straightforward...any ideas?