About code. Mostly on C++
Visual Studio 2012 introduced a new framework for writing debugger visualizers for C++ types that replaced the old autoexp.dat file. The new framework offers xml syntax, better diagnostics, versioning and multiple file support. Visualizers are defined in XML files with extension .natvis. These visualizers are loaded each time the debugger starts. That means if you … Read more
CPtrArray is a nasty MFC container that should not be used. However, if you deal with legacy code you may not have a choice and have to work with it. Unfortunately, the Visual Studio debugger is not able to display its elements, since these are pointers to void and that can be anything. In this … Read more
When you run your (unmanaged/C++) application in debugger, you see at the end a report of memory leaks (if any are detected). Something like this: Detected memory leaks! Dumping objects -> f:\dd\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\strcore.cpp(141) : {381} normal block at 0x001FFC30, 54 bytes long. Data: < x > 0C 00 B9 78 12 00 00 00 12 00 … Read more
I’ve recently discovered a new nice feature in the natice debugger of Visual Studio 2008: the visualization of bit flags. Let’s take this enumeration for example. Notice that each constant is basically a bit flag. enum Weekdays { Monday = 1, Thuesday = 2, Wednesday = 4, Thursday = 8, Friday = 16, Saturday = … Read more
Suppose you have the following code: void foo() { throw std::runtime_error(“a foo exception!”); } int main() { foo(); } When running the program, the following window is popped up: When running it in the debugger, a different window is popped up: and the debugger takes you to the line of code that threw the exception. … Read more