[Python-3000] Windows: debug mode

[Giovanni Bajo]

On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:19:30 +0100, Martin v. Löwis wrote:

>> Thus, I'm hereby proposing that we change this in Py3k so that Python's
>> debug mode does not mandate any ABI change anymore.
> 
> It seems people still debate what it is that you *actually* want. 

Yes, sorry for the confusion. 

> This
> sentence suggests Christian's interpretation, i.e. you might be unaware
> that the debug mode not only adds debug symbols, but also changes the
> layout of objects. That is *very* useful, and should not be dropped.

Yes, I know it changes the ABI, and I know it must say as it is. I 
believe that Py_DEBUG is mostly useful to core developers and not much to 
extension developer or regular Python developers, but it's immaterial in 
this discussion.

>> This means that a
>> programmer will be able to mixmatch release-mode extensions and
>> compile- mode extensions, thus getting debuggability only of those
>> extensions he really cares.
> 
> Whereas this suggests Phillip's interpretation, i.e. you merely want
> debug symbols on a single DLL.

Yes I want this.

> You can get that today - just enable debug information for your
> extension module, and the compiler will emit the PDB files you need for
> debugging.

Yes, this is what I do everyday by manually hand-edit my setup.py script. 
Is there a way to make distutils do this for me with a simple command-
line switch?

I think my request can be resumed like this:

1) Add to distutils a way support to compile extensions with debug 
informations, without optimizations, and linked with the non-debug CRT.

2) Add the same compilation mode to Python itself, so that users can 
easily compile a Python DLL which has debug symbols but with the release 
ABI (since stepping into the Python's core can be useful while debugging 
an extension).

I hope it's clear now :)
-- 
Giovanni Bajo