On: Using GNU's GDB Debugger

[zandorg]

I use Rational Purify, which shows all memory leaks, and Rational Quantify, which gives statistics.

Purify stops leaks. Quantify allows adding a few hacks to give 20x speedup, sometimes 100x with practise.

Windows only AFAIK.

[kingmaker → zandorg]

Valgrind is also incredibly useful if you are working with Linux.

[orib → kingmaker]

Yep, especially with tools like kcachegrind for visualizing the output of valgrind's profiler (valgrind --tool=callgrind)

[zandorg → kingmaker]

I've used Valgrind on Linux, but it's one of those applications where I have the time and patience to install it once, but not twice. That's my fault for not taking notes on how I set it up.

It is in some ways as good as Quantify and Purify, except that they're much easier to use, being based around a good GUI.

[ajross → zandorg]

Um... what? You install valgrind by selecting it from your package manager (e.g. "apt-get install valgrind"). You run it by prepending "valgrind" to the command. Then you read the output. Valgrind is one of the most dummy-proof development tools I'm aware of. For someone to claim that they don't have the patience to "learn" it is just beyond me.

[Alaric → zandorg]

They're also available for Unix/Linux, although the Window's versions seem more slick. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/purify/unix/

Of course they perform a different function to gdb in general.

[lallysingh → zandorg]

Ack! $5,800! I know good software tools are often worth it, but that's gotta be one fantastic set of tools!