Re: gdba probs

[Richard Stallman]

     Apart
    from the errors, I like to think much of the functionality is self evident.

Maybe so, but the person who said he didn't know what these windows
were for apparently did not find it so.  How about if you talk with him
about why it wasn't evident to him?

    At the moment there's only what you get from `C-h f gdba' (reproduced 
below).

Can you think of ways to make the text in the windows themselves show
what they do and how to use them?  Please put some effort into this.  A
major part of the idea of graphical interfaces is that they can, with
some effort, be self-explanatory.  But just putting text in a window
doesn't automatically achieve that; you have to design your interface
for it.

One idea is that a window, when "empty" or nearly so, could show a
command list for that window.  However, it could also contain buttons
which provide a graphical way to give the window commands.  Then a
user would not need to learn and remember special commands for each
window.  This would be an easier-to-use interface.

    There are a
    further 3 buffers (assembler, registers, display) that the user might want 
to
    display and each user will have his/her own preferences. I have looked at 
trying
    to save a window configuration and I note that this concept has been on the
    TODO list of desktop.el for a long time. I can imagine this is not an easy
    thing to do.

This is less important.  As long as there is a way people can specify
the layout they want, that is good enough for starters.  Please focus on
making the interface natural and self-explanatory.

    As for what each buffer does I could start to document it in info format but
    its still evolving and I don't know if there is sufficient interest yet.

Please do document it (in Texinfo format).

Miles suggested this:

    The GUI debuggers I've used typically start out displaying only one or two
    windows (e.g., the command window and a source window, sort of like normal
    gud mode), but offer toolbar buttons to easily pop up others; once the 
others
    are popped up, they are updated continuously.  Note that for some window
    types, you can pop up more than one instance -- e.g. memory display windows,
    where you may want to display several regions of memory simultaneously.

I think this is a good idea.  If users want to change configurations
as they go, then saving a configuration permanently is NOT very
useful.