mitch...@codesourcery.com (Mark Mitchell) writes: > [...] In my opinion, the single hardest issue we face with respect > to 4.5 is how to handle the VTA branch. [...] The problem it's > setting out to solve is definitely important, but the scope of this > particular solution frightens me. [...]
I can only address the "benefits" side of this. I think VTA (and control-flow-related followup technologies) would mark the beginning of the end of the entrenched idea that "if you want to debug your code, you have to compile with -O0", which have lead to a proliferation of asserts, ad-hoc conditional printfs, compiled-in debugging-only functions. With the extra dwarf metadata, already existing consumer programs will be able to trace/debug final deployed binaries. Developers will be able to better see into what's going on in released, running programs, not just ones built differently in one's own sandbox. It should enable new whole new development tools. This is the grand promise, anyway. I think it's a big step forward. - FChE
