Today we have released the first Beta of VisualGDB 6.1. It introduces the new Smart Terminal GUI for all project types, considerably improves the ESP-IDF workflow with the new Consolidated Toolchain, and introduces a few smaller features like Live Watch on Linux, and better GUI for editing CMake file lists.
Smart Terminal
Command-line tools are everywhere. Many frameworks and SDKs come with their own helper tools for generating various images, updating configuration, performing some intermediate build steps, etc. There are too many of them to have a GUI option for each one, yet running these tools directly from the command line could be very annoying.
VisualGDB’s answer to this is the new smart terminal. Just like any terminal, it lets you run various commands and tools directly from your favorite IDE, but unlike most terminals, it keeps a track of directories, environments and commands you use, and stores them together with the project.
So if you needed to setup some extra environment for that vendor-specific tool, it’s automatically saved for the next time. If if took you some trial and error to figure out the right command line, one click, and you can pin on top of the command line history. It can also show command suggestions (just like Visual Studio’s own IntelliSense), quickly display searchable directory contents in a side panel, and easily jump to common directories (like the build directory of the current project).
The terminal is included in all editions of VisualGDB, and is also available as a part of CodeVROOM. So, if you are developing something directly on a Linux or Mac machine where Visual Studio won’t run, you can get the same terminal features, and a little more.
Consolidated ESP-IDF Toolchain
In the recent years, Espressif has done tremendous work on improving the quality of their toolchains. All recent ESP-IDF versions explicitly reference specific versions of the compiler, Python, and other tools, and work just fine out-of-the-box. The last few versions of our repackaged ESP-IDF toolchain did not need any special workarounds, and very closely followed the original Espressif’s packages.
VisualGDB 6.1 brings you one step further. It now directly recognizes the ESP-IDF checkouts and tools installed by the Espressif’s VS Code extension, so you can use it with the latest ESP-IDF versions the moment they are released by Espressif. No more waiting, no need to keep separate toolchains! Enjoy the power of VisualGDB while using the latest Espressif tools out-of-the-box.
We also published a free stand-alone tool for downloading and verifying the ESP-IDF checkouts.
CMake Improvements
VisualGDB 6.1 adds a few improvements to large CMake-based projects with many source files. First of all, you can now drag multiple files between folders or targets, and VisualGDB will move them accordingly, and update the targets’ file lists. You can also rename folders (updating all files inside them).
If your CMake project is a wrapper around some other project or library, that keeps adding/moving files, you can now easily match the physical sources against CMake references:
Check the newly added files, confirm the missing ones, and VisualGDB will update the target file lists automatically.
Live Watch on Linux
You can now see the values of various global variables of your Linux programs in real-time. No breakpoints, no delays, no runtime overhead. It uses the same GUI as the embedded projects, while using a small auxiliary tool for reading the process memory non-intrusively with process_vm_readv().
Try it Out
You can download the new release on the download page. If you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to reach us out via our support form or the VisualGDB forum.