CCS: Code Composer Studio v7.0 Expression value length in Debug View

Hi,

I am almost sure this was a modification of the Eclipse original Expressions view plug-in as we don't contribute to that component. Despite this, I have a few questions/comments about your post.

>>The output is limited to some amount of characters after which the only way to see the rest is to expand the tree, which is quite painful when >>data structures are HUGE and doesn't let us search data
>>I would like to see the WHOLE structure with all 200 array elements with no limits and FULL representation of internal data fields

I suspect this may be due to the impracticality of having the entire array displayed when constraints such as the viewport/workbench sizes are much more limiting. The ability to search data would be desirable, although you can potentially type specific elements of the array/structure separately (I couldn't find a way to display a limited range, though).

>>Trace32 Example: endless string with Outputdata array with no limits
Well, there is most probably some limitation in displaying the data in your example, either the screen size (as shown) or something larger such as the maximum line length of the console.

>>Trace32 Example: expanding array of structures
This view has a button that collapses all the values, but in this case it seems the opposite function would be also interesting: expand all variables. That is something I would have to get back to you given the holiday season.

>>But I would still be happy to know if there is a way to develop a plugin for CCS and extend this functionality myself. Perhaps, that would require source code though :(
As I mentioned, this view is most probably open source already. And this is one of the reasons we have been trying to keep the open source components of Eclipse/CDT as intact as possible - so we don't risk breaking compatibility with third party plugins and other developers' contributions to the mainline Eclipse.

Regards,
Rafael

Hi Rafael,

Thanks for your reply.

>>I am almost sure this was a modification of the Eclipse original Expressions view plug-in as we don't contribute to that component

We tried to trace it down with Eclipse source code and couldn't come up with any solution to remove that limit.  BTW,  Standard Eclipse CDT of the same version didn't have this feature at all (tried to create CDT project ).  Please point to the plugin we could modify if you think otherwise.  Since I assume it is a modified version of the original plug-in, not published to Eclipse mainline, I believe I can't adjust it for my personal needs as I don't know CCS API.  CCS Debugger core API isn't open source, right?  I can't implement table search/dump with the help of CCS scripting automation either.  If there was a search/filter that could output data based on the user query, it would be even better I think.  Having custom output scripts supported like in Eclipse for Java would also be very cool.

Example of CDT C++ project based on CCS v7.1 to demonstrate no Value expression printed:

>> I suspect this may be due to the impracticality of having the entire array displayed when constraints such as the viewport/workbench sizes are much more limiting.

Do you mean that Expressions viewport in Eclipse has width constraints? It should be possible to connect Value column length to the quick format of each structure in Expressions view. If Value column length is smaller as by the default, then do limit correspondingly. If the user resizes that column and wants to see more of the one line formatted data in the structure, CCS should adjust that output correspondingly. I tried resizing Value column in Expressions and couldn't hit the limit.  I guess there are no size constraints in Eclipse (it should be RAM based).  A scrollbar appears at the bottom when column width goes above window size.  It seems like you can fit anything into that window, just like Trace32 does (there are no obvious limits).  At some point, it makes sense to apply some limits in Eclipse/CCS as there are users who don't have the required amount of RAM allocated for CCS/Eclipse process, or their debugger/JTAG frequency/remote connection is slow, hence it may take long time to output big tables whereas the user needs to look at the known individual items, which is why I think the feature should flexible/configurable based on some settings/options.

Example of a very long Value column length:

Dumping selected variable (array or structure) to console output in the format alike Trace32 was also a solution we've been looking for.  Doesn't seem easy though.  However, with that feature the users would be able to copy the result and search through the text in some other text editors with regexps and filter data based on their preferences.  Please suggest if there is a known way to achieve this with the latest CCS version.

>> This view has a button that collapses all the values, but in this case it seems the opposite function would be also interesting: expand all variables. 

If expand selected variable and all its sub/nested structures, the result may be too long to navigate and memorize previously viewed data, so it isn't very convenient.  Expand up to the point where CCS plugin modification does NOT have to limit the quick format {field1=0, field2=2... } may be a better idea.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

Alexander

Thank you very much, Raymond!

I quickly played with these settings and their worked.

So far I am comfortable with configuring these manually as per my needs during debug.

Alexander

Unfortunately, I just noticed that the settings don't work for arrays.  They are still limited regardless of the preview_length settings

Is there any option for these as well?

Thanks in advance

Figured out myself there is 'cfg'::preview_array_length I can set.

preview_array_length specifies how many elements to display.