Gdb

> Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:28:40 +1000
> From: Russell Shaw <rjshawnetspace.net.au>
> CC:  gdbsourceware.org
> 
> > That is not necessarily a sign of bad design.  For
example, when Emacs
> > does garbage collection, the stack depth sometimes
exceeds 10,000
> > levels when recursive data structures are marked. 
That is normal and
> > by design.
> 
> The slowness and size of emacs put me off it. I use
(g)vim because
> editing using ex regex commands is a more direct way at
doing things imho.

What does this have to do with the issue at hand?  I used
Emacs as an
example of a very deep stack being a normal situation in a
working
program whose design is generally considered well-thought.

> > Perhaps you lack good tools for learning programs,
or don't use them
> > to their full power.
> 
> I just use ctags to navigate in gvim.

I recommend to add at least ID-Utils to your toolchest.  I
don't know
if someone wrote a gvim plug-in for it (the Emacs interface
is
included in the package), but even if you invoke it from the
shell,
it's an invaluable tool for finding your way around an
unfamiliar
program.

Also, some parts of GDB internals are documented in
gdbint.texinfo.
Sadly, many important aspects are not covered at all there,
but if you
are lucky to be working on something that is described,
reading that
manual can help.