Support debugging with breakpoints in Xcode and Visual Studio Code

[timokosonen]

Please consider supporting debugging with breakpoints in Xcode and Visual Studio Code.

The ability to set breakpoints in code has been one of the most important IDE features throughout my programming career. It is hard to think of any other feature that is as powerful for debugging as breakpoints. I hope you will consider this seriously, or perhaps point me in the right direction to set it up if it is already possible with some tweaking. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration!

[timokosonen]

"LLDB is the default debugger in Xcode on macOS and supports debugging C, Objective-C and C++ on the desktop and iOS devices and simulator." https://lldb.llvm.org

[timokosonen]

For Visual Studio Code, there is an extension called CodeLLDB that enables LLDB-based debugging for "C++, Rust, and other compiled languages" https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vadimcn.vscode-lldb

I haven't used it myself.

[timokosonen]

I received the following next steps from Google Gemini.

1. Emit Standard Debug Metadata (DWARF or PDB)
2. Map Your Language Types to DWARF
3. Choose Your LLDB Integration Path: Level A: The "C/C++ Masquerade" (Easiest), Level B: Write an LLDB Language Plugin (Advanced)
4. Create Variable Pretty-Printers (Data Formatters)

[timokosonen]

Just providing a quick status update: I have been able to both build with perry and run the resulting binary from Xcode. Next, I hope to figure out how to get the DWARF data and use it in Xcode.

[timokosonen]

Status update: I have a custom build rule for .ts files:

PERRY_DEBUG_SYMBOLS=1 /Users/kosonen/perry/target/release/perry compile $SCRIPT_INPUT_FILE -o $BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR/perrytest

It adds some DWARF data to the binary, and the binary size is noticeably larger when this runs. However, this DWARF data doesn't seem to be sufficient for Xcode to enable working breakpoints in the code.