Re: [v4 2/2] multi-executable support

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>]

> From: Pedro Alves <pedro@codesourcery.com>
> Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2009 19:41:11 +0100
> 
> > So "symbol space" is actually a synonym for a "program", i.e. the set
> > of code, data, and symbolic debug info that is the result of linking
> > an executable? then why not call it a "program"? ?
> 
> I would like that, but I'm not sure if it is correct.  If
> it is, great, I'm very glad to simplify.
> 
> I actually don't know the exact definition of what is a "program".
> Are the code, data, symbolic debug info of the load shared libraries
> (and of other sources, e.g., added with add-symbol-file) part of the
> program as well, or is the program considered the main executable
> only?  I had the feeling that in GDB speak, it was the latter case.
> If not, I'd be glad to s/sspaces/programs/g.
> 
> Let me try to give concrete examples to show why I got to where
> I am, and then I hope you'll be able to tell me (from the user's
> perspective) with a stronger opinion, that I should really expose
> sspaces as "programs" to the user, or not.  Please be patient,
> the email is long, but it's mostly just pastes of usage examples.

Thanks for making this effort to explain things.  It's late down here,
and I'm after a long day of debugging the GDB build for DJGPP.  I need
to think about this with a fresh mind, so this will have to wait for
tomorrow.

For now, let me ask just one question.  I believe answering it will go
a long way towards defining the best paradigm and hence names for
these features.

Here's my question: Why do we need a container for inferiors (that you
call sspace)?  I understand why we need a way of starting another
inferior _in_addition_to_ the existing ones (as opposed to
_instead_of_ the existing one).  But wouldn't it be enough to have one
command -- "add-inferior", say -- to provide the same set of features
you want, i.e. the ability to debug several inferiors at the same
time?

IOW, I don't understand why we need to group inferiors by sspaces.

TIA