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So, how difficult is to implement each component of a debugger?
Here is an estimate of the complexity and effort (by a senior staff
engineer with solid experience in compiler development) required
to implement each component:
|
Low-level symbol table |
1 % |
4 hr |
|
High-level symbol table |
20 % |
60 hr |
Object
file format reader
low-level (ELF):
high-level (dwarf-3) |
5 %
20 % |
8 hr
60 hr |
Expression evaluator
low-level (address / constants)
high-level (lines, types, variables, functions) |
5 %
35 % |
8 hr
160 hr |
|
Execution engine |
10 % |
40 hr |
| Command
processor |
3 % |
40 hr |
| User
interface |
1 % |
16 hr |
| |
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|
|
Disassembler (*) |
40 % |
40 hr |
| Code
analyzer |
20 % |
40 hr |
|
Register description |
10 % |
24 hr |
| Target
access |
10 % |
40 hr |
| ABI
description |
20 % |
60 hr |
(*) the complexity depends on the processor's instruction set.
A detailed analysis of each component is available
here.
© 2007 Giampiero Caprino, Backer Street Software
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