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Qt, Linux and everything: Debugging Qt WebAssembly

62 pointsby speckxyesterday at 9:19 PM15 commentsview on HN

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N_Lenstoday at 12:48 AM

What's interesting here is that you can now debug WebAssembly applications with full C++ source-level debugging directly in Chrome, complete with breakpoints, variable inspection, and step-through debugging, just like a native desktop app.

What makes this particularly interesting is the technology stack: Emscripten embeds DWARF debugging symbols (the same format used for native Linux binaries) directly into WebAssembly binaries. A Chrome browser extension then reads these embedded symbols and reconstructs the original C++ source code view in the DevTools, mapping the compiled WebAssembly back to your Qt C++ source with full directory paths intact.

All of this would have seemed impossible not long ago.

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irishcoffeeyesterday at 11:57 PM

I feel like this article is severely flawed.

Debugging wasm qt apps is not hard at all. Yes, as the article says, you need to build the code in debug mode, this isn’t unusual.

If you use qtcreator, it’s, and I hate this word, trivial. Most of the work comes from setting up the qt kit in qtcreator… which takes about 5 minutes.

Breakpoints just work. Debugging just works. Everything… works.

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em3rgent0rdryesterday at 10:22 PM

Very useful. It would be great for the browser become the cross-platform application target. I've been eagerly waiting for Qt WebAssembly to mature.

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oblioyesterday at 10:56 PM

Is anyone using Qt for developing Mac apps these days? How is the integration after the recent Mac UI refresh?

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