Strings have an expander and are treated like arrays but they don't have to be. The string is already shown in the value and there is the text viewer for them. The expander just gets in the way.

On 26/10/2018 02:29, Michelle Long wrote:
> Strings have an expander and are treated like arrays but they don't have to be. The string is already shown in the value and there is the text viewer for them. The expander just gets in the way.

The array display can also be helpful for some lowlevel code that iterates over the string, especially if there multi-byte characters in a string. I don't think having the option to expand the string is too distractive.

On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 06:36:05 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>
>
> On 26/10/2018 02:29, Michelle Long wrote:
>> Strings have an expander and are treated like arrays but they don't have to be. The string is already shown in the value and there is the text viewer for them. The expander just gets in the way.
>
> The array display can also be helpful for some lowlevel code that iterates over the string, especially if there multi-byte characters in a string. I don't think having the option to expand the string is too distractive.

I thought I already replied to this, oh well...

The problem is that sometimes one might click on the expander and it expands far too much. It most cases it is not needed.

Maybe you could make it an option(have an options page for things like this that tweak things for personal taste) that you can add over time that doesn't get in the way of normal functionality.

VS has a memory window for looking at arrays in a more meaningful way which is nearly just as easy to use.

Since 95%+ of the time one doesn't need to look at the character data of a string(since it's a string and not a byte array), the expenders are not needed. In most of the other cases the memory window could be used. If anyone is needed such behavior consistently then it can be enabled(or disabled, I don't care about default behavior as long as I can override it).

The goal is to make the debugging experience easy nice as possible so it is not so frustrating. Everyone is different and has different needs.

On 30/10/2018 16:31, Michelle Long wrote:
> On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 06:36:05 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 26/10/2018 02:29, Michelle Long wrote:
>>> Strings have an expander and are treated like arrays but they don't have to be. The string is already shown in the value and there is the text viewer for them. The expander just gets in the way.
>>
>> The array display can also be helpful for some lowlevel code that iterates over the string, especially if there multi-byte characters in a string. I don't think having the option to expand the string is too distractive.
> 
> I thought I already replied to this, oh well...
> 
> The problem is that sometimes one might click on the expander and it expands far too much. It most cases it is not needed.
> 
> Maybe you could make it an option(have an options page for things like this that tweak things for personal taste) that you can add over time that doesn't get in the way of normal functionality.

Mago already has a page for these kind of options: Tools->Options->Debugger->Mago.

> 
> VS has a memory window for looking at arrays in a more meaningful way which is nearly just as easy to use.
> 
> Since 95%+ of the time one doesn't need to look at the character data of a string(since it's a string and not a byte array), the expenders are not needed. In most of the other cases the memory window could be used. If anyone is needed such behavior consistently then it can be enabled(or disabled, I don't care about default behavior as long as I can override it).
> 
> The goal is to make the debugging experience easy nice as possible so it is not so frustrating. Everyone is different and has different needs.

Shouldn't be to difficult to implement, I'll think about it: https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19352

On Saturday, 3 November 2018 at 08:26:57 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>
>
> On 30/10/2018 16:31, Michelle Long wrote:
>> On Friday, 26 October 2018 at 06:36:05 UTC, Rainer Schuetze wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 26/10/2018 02:29, Michelle Long wrote:
>>>> Strings have an expander and are treated like arrays but they don't have to be. The string is already shown in the value and there is the text viewer for them. The expander just gets in the way.
>>>
>>> The array display can also be helpful for some lowlevel code that iterates over the string, especially if there multi-byte characters in a string. I don't think having the option to expand the string is too distractive.
>> 
>> I thought I already replied to this, oh well...
>> 
>> The problem is that sometimes one might click on the expander and it expands far too much. It most cases it is not needed.
>> 
>> Maybe you could make it an option(have an options page for things like this that tweak things for personal taste) that you can add over time that doesn't get in the way of normal functionality.
>
> Mago already has a page for these kind of options: Tools->Options->Debugger->Mago.
>
>> 
>> VS has a memory window for looking at arrays in a more meaningful way which is nearly just as easy to use.
>> 
>> Since 95%+ of the time one doesn't need to look at the character data of a string(since it's a string and not a byte array), the expenders are not needed. In most of the other cases the memory window could be used. If anyone is needed such behavior consistently then it can be enabled(or disabled, I don't care about default behavior as long as I can override it).
>> 
>> The goal is to make the debugging experience easy nice as possible so it is not so frustrating. Everyone is different and has different needs.
>
> Shouldn't be to difficult to implement, I'll think about it: https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19352


Thanks!