Better variable exploring when debugging C++ code with Eclipse/CDT

Question

Using Eclipse and CDT to debug C++ code the variable windows is cumbersome and not very informative for types defined in the standard template library or in boost (e.g. shared_ptr).

Just an example how this may look like for an std::vector:

bar {...}   
    std::_Vector_base<TSample<MyTraits>, std::allocator<TSample<MyTraits> > >   
        _M_impl {...}   
            std::allocator<TSample<MyTraits> >  {...}   
            _M_start    0x00007ffff7fb5010  
            _M_finish   0x00007ffff7fd4410  
            _M_end_of_storage   0x00007ffff7fd5010  

Even if this information about the internals of those types may be useful, in almost any cases I would expect a clearer presentation here, i.e. a list of values for the std::vector. Are there any tools, plugins or other modifications around which can do this?

Answer 1

I know that JDT (Java environment in eclipse) provides custom "formatters" to be applied when displaying variable values in debug views. A quick look at google for the same in CDT brings this page:

http://wiki.eclipse.org/CDT/Better_Debugging_%28GSoC_project%29

I don't know if this has been yet integrated in the main CDT line, may be you can try to right click on a variable while debugging (in the last CDT) and see if there is a custom formater entry. If not available I recomend you to add a new tracker entry in CDT tracker to ask this enhancement.