RE: GDB in C++

["Gary Funck" <gary at intrepid dot com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Blandy
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:41 PM
[...]
> 
> We have a GDB wiki: http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/
> 
> I wouldn't object to moving the internals documentation there.
> High-level organization is pretty key to effective documentation,
> though, so the wiki would need aggressive gardening.  It would
> probably be good for it to have an appointed editor, to avoid ending
> up with two or three competing theories for the overall organization.

If the GDB internals document were maintained as part of the
GDB source tree, then presumably each version of that document
will closely track the state of the source tree that it is part of.

If the GDB internals document is maintained in the GDB WIKI
then it likely tracks the state of the trunk of the development
source tree.

There are pros/cons to both approaches.

What are the advantages of moving the internal documentation to
the WIKI?  Is there an idea that by being in WIKI format that
developers (even casual developers) will be more likely contribute
to the internal documentation, rather than marking up the internal
document as it currently exists?

I notice that the WIKI
http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/
doesn't appear to have a discussion page (ala Wikipedia).  I think
there may be value in such a thing, because developers and users
can discuss internals documentation issues before committing to
updating the document.  Thus, some internals info. can be made
available before the time is taken to rework that information into
prose.

In my opinion, it likely isn't the current format of the internals
documentation that is holding back further development of that
documentation,
but I would be interested in hearing counter-opinions.

  - Gary