Qt debugging with Visual Studio 2005

zbenjamin, one of the fine folks from the Qxt-project just gave me his additions to the AutoExp.dat-file that lets you debug native Qt-types (e.g. QString) far more easily. Here's the before/after-comparison:

Before

After

How it's done

And here's what you have to do to use it yourself:
First, open up the file

C:\Program\ Files\Microsoft\ Visual\ Studio\ 8\Common7\Packages\Debugger\autoexp.dat

Important: Under Windows Vista, you need to open the file as Administrator, because it is not writeable by the user and the program-files-virtualisation will get in your way.

Then, add the following lines under the [AutoExpand]-mark:

QObject =classname=<staticMetaObject.d.stringdata,s> superclassname=<staticMetaObject.d.superdata->d.stringdata,s>
QList<*>=size=<d->end,i>
QLinkedList<*>=size=<d->end,i>
QString=<d->data,su> size=<d->size,u>
QByteArray=<d->data,s> size=<d->size,u>
QUrl =<d->encodedOriginal.d->data,s>
QUrlInfo =<d->name.d->data,su>
QPoint =x=<xp> y=<yp>
QPointF =x=<xp> y=<yp>
QRect =x1=<x1> y1=<y1> x2=<x2> y2=<y2>
QRectF =x=<xp> y=<yp> w=<w> h=<h>
QSize =width=<wd> height=<ht>
QSizeF =width=<wd> height=<ht>
QMap<*> =size=<d->size>
QVector<*> =size=<d->size>
QHash<*> =size=<d->size>
QVarLengthArray<*> =size=<s> data=<ptr>
QFont =family=<d->request.family.d->data,su> size=<d->request.pointSize, f>
QDomNode =name=<impl->name.d->data,su> value=<impl->value.d->data,su>

Now restart Visual Studio and you should be good to go.