D0 – an object inspector for C/C++ applications

Hey, ever since I saw developer tools in today's web browsers, I wanted to have that kind of functionality available when developing C++ projects. The ability to browse the DOM tree, modify it and also execute JS in the console seemed like something that could be brought into other languages, albeit with differences of course.

Around half a year ago I started work on D0, a Windows application that enables some of that functionality for C/C++ programs compiled using MSVC and Clang. The aim is to enable viewing objects/structs in your code live and also making it possible to call C++ functions completely at runtime, without requiring any modifications to your C++ code. The project is still in early stages of development, but I'm already using it e.g to develop itself.

D0 takes a different approach than most debuggers, in that it integrates a scripting language (Angelscript) into the workflow. The scripting engine then allows for inserting scripting snippets anywhere into your C++ code at runtime in which you can call functions like `view(object);` or `log(object);` to view application state at the point where you inserted the call. Unlike breakpoints, this call becomes a part of your application code and is executed accordingly without stopping the entire application. This allows for viewing/modifying the state live, instead of e.g repeatedly continuing from a breakpoint or building a custom UI for that state.

The tool has been quite useful for me already, but I'm currently looking for early feedback on the idea. If you have any questions or suggestions, please ask!