While I did state that the first beta of
MacGDBp would be out by the end of the year, I decided against pushing a new build before
immediately disappearing on holiday for two weeks. But today is the day!
Version 2.0 is not a complete rewrite, but virtually every aspect of the app has been updated and
improved. The biggest changes are under-the-hood, particularly around the interaction between the
frontend and the remote debugger, which now accurately tracks “transactions.” This allows MacGDBp to
fetch the contents of long arrays or large objects without issue. In addition, several components
have been refactored to improve the project’s code health and the app’s robustness. These
improvements fixed numerous long-standing bugs in the app.
The biggest new feature, by popular demand, is the ability to set symbolic breakpoints. This will
pause the debugger any time a function of a given name is called, rather than having to rely solely
on file/line breakpoints.
Unfortunately, the app will remain un-sandboxed and not code signed. The Sparkle updater is not yet
compatible with the app sandbox. And Apple’s annoying
two-factor authentication requirements rule out (for me)
obtaining a signing certificate. Sparkle will still verify the updates’ signature, however.
Finally, MacGDBp 2.0 sports a new, unified interface. All of the panels and windows have been
collapsed into a single, tabbed window.
See the changelog for the full list of new features
and bug fixes.
You can download MacGDBp 2.0 Beta 1 from the product page.