From: Gregg N 

"Frank Haber"  wrote in
news:4235d702{at}w3.nls.net:

> Ah, that kind of symbols.  I wonder why they're handing that out with
> hotfixes?

I don't know. Usually, I set up my debugger to use a public symbol server
that automatically retrieves the correct symbol files for the installed
software versions.

Wow you have a lot of questions for such a simple reply.

> What's the cheapest NT debugger out there?

You can download the Microsoft WinDbg (often pronounced windbag) debugger
for free here:

   http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/ddk/debugging/

It is not as polished as the debugger that is integrated within Visual
Studio, but it has the advantage that it can do kernel debugging as well as
user mode debugging. It is GUI-based, but has an integrated command
interpreter for issuing debugging commands.

You can also download GNU gdb for free.

> Do you have to run a debug build of XP to use it?

No. The debug operating system build (MS calls it the "checked"
build) is usually only used for device driver development, but even then it
is not required.

>  How much does that increase device latency?

Probably has no direct effect, if by device latency you mean time from
interrupt to interrupt service, memory overcommittment due to size of
debugger notwithstanding.

> How buggy is running same, broadly speaking?  Is this .PDB
> format universal?

I belive it's a Windows-specific format.

> Do all debuggers use the post-386 debugging
> instructions these days?

I have no idea.

> And I don't think I could get much mileage out of SYMDEB these days,
> right? And an 80286 ICE clip isn't too useful, either?

That's probably too old to be useful, but I'm not sure.

Gregg

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