INTRO
-----

vcdb is a command-line interface to the visual c++ debugger,
with an extension to the gnu emacs gud.el package.  

vcdb is Copyright (C) 2001 Nicholas Thompson.  All Rights Reserved.
vcdb is distributed according to the terms of the GNU General Public
License, version 2.  see the file COPYING.txt for details.

the latest version is available from:
  http://www.nixfiles.com/src/vcdb/

MANIFEST
--------

README.txt - this file
   vcdb.pl - command-line perl script that communicates with
             msdev using the Win32::OLE modules.
   vcdb.el - gnu emacs support for running vcdb within gud.el


INSTALLATION
------------

vcdb requires Perl with the Win32::OLE libraries.  i am using
it with the ActivePerl 5.6.1.628 distribution.

put vcdb.pl in your PATH somewhere, and make sure .pl files
are started by perl.

if you are using emacs, put vcdb.el in your emacs load-path
somewhere.  add this to your .emacs file:

  (autoload 'vcdb "vcdb" "Connect to VC++ debugger" t)

i use vcdb.el with ntemacs, based on gnu emacs 20.7.1.  i
think the xemacs debugger package is different but xemacs
on win32 isn't there yet anyway.


USAGE
-----

vcdb.pl will connect to an existing msdev process, or start
one if none is found.  you need to open the appropriate
project within msdev by hand.

within emacs, M-x vcdb

XXX later take executable or project file as command line
 argument, but can't figure out how to get the Open
 command to work.

vcdb may be in any of the following states:
 DISCONNECT - no msdev process chosen
 STOP - msdev present, but no debuggee process.
 RUN - debuggee process is running
 BREAK - debuggee process is stopped in the debugger


COMMANDS
--------

         ?  show help
     break  show or add breakpoints
  continue  resume or start the program
    finish  continue to end of current function
      help  show help
      kill  stop the program
      next  step one line in current function
      open  open a project, .exe. or file
     print  evaluate an expression
      quit  exit vcdb
     rerun  restart the program
     state  show current state
      step  step one line
      view  pop the msdev window to the front


BUGS
----

the following commands don't work yet for unknown reasons.  any
assistance would be great:

     break, open, print, state, view


LIMITATIONS
-----------

- limited by the msdev "object model" to only a few commands.
  in particular i don't see any way to implement "up", "down",
  or "backtrace".

- limited by Win32::OLE event support - it would be nice to
  get notified when the program hits a breakpoint.  currently


TODO
----

add commands to pop up specific msdev windows, for example
the stack window.  this would provide something similar to
"backtrace" though not in the emacs text window...