Hi, 
I'm using VS17 and the Arduino 1.6/1.8 selection for ESP8266 boards. I've a solution with 3 projects. Also, there's one .ino file and several .h, .cpp, .inc used.

Setting the breakpoint in the .ino file works fine. But setting a breakpoint in a .cpp file does not. The code is executed (i put the brakpoint in the Serial.println line, in the console I see the output, but only the .ino breakpoints are shown and not the .cpp breakpoint.
Also, compiling and linking is fine without any problems.

Any idea?

Thanks
Andreas

Hi, 
I can confirm that breakpoints in general work. I set up a new solution with one project, that's fine.

But as soon as there are more than one projects in the solution, it's in my case not working anymore.

What I did:
- new Solution "sol"
- initial project "prj1" (prj1.ino, testclass.h and testclass.cpp)
- breakpoints in prj1.ino and testclass.cpp -> works fine

Add a new project "prj2" (prj2.ino) to the solution in VS17, creating a new directory for this project. Add the existing files (testclass.h and test.cpp) to this new prj2 (still we're in the same solution in VC2017).

Adding breakpoints in prj2.ino works, but the breakpoints in testclass.cpp are ignored.

With the hint you gave me ("temp build folder"), I checked the testclass.cpp file, and some statements had been added. But this information is not shown in the debug log from Visual Micro in VS17.

Maybe I did something wrong with the VS17 usage and setup of the projects?

Anyway, I prepared the files you requested from my original question, and I can add the temp VS17 solution/directory tree for testing, too. Please provide your email address that I can send it to you.

Regards
Andreas

Thanks for sending your project.

I think the issue is that in sketch2 you have made a short cut to the file that exists in the breakpoint project. If you open the F4 properties and click on each of the two .cpp files you will see the "relative path" property shows this clearly.

I will look into why debug doesn't work for linked/shared source code and try to fix for the next release.

Thanks

Out of interest, did you actually mean to have the same source code files in both projects?

In your tests I think you worked with two different source files of the same name in two different projects but in your real project you have the same source code files in two different projects. 

So I am just checking that you are clear about your config?

Thanks, yes it makes sense but here are a few tips

As you say, using shared (existing) code links does not provide debugging and might never do. 

However he is a slightly better way to work that you might find easier anyway. There is the facility to create shared project code in visual studio. File>new>c++>general>shared project. This will cteate a special/simple type of project in a location you choose. The project does not build on its own, instead you simply right click the References node in an arduino projects and then click "Add reference>shared project". That then gives you a tidy way to group shared code and also gives debug facility.

A shared project is merged into the temp build folder and compiled with the arduino project code just as if you had included the code directly in the arduino project. The folder structure of a shared project is adhered too which is not the case for linked sources which are always copied into the project root in the temporary build folder.

The latest release of Visual Micro (few hours ago) makes creating shared projects or new libraries much more obvious and easier.

You can end with something like this

solution

> Shared Project A: solution/shared_stuff
   > solution/shared_stuff/bar.h
   > solution/shared_stuff/bar.cpp
   > solution/shared_stuff/src/foo2.cpp
   > solution/shared_stuff/src/foo2.h

> Arduino Project A: solution/breakpointtest/
   > solution/breakpointtest/breakpointtest.ino

> Arduino Project B: solution/example
   > solution/example/sketch2/sketch2.ino
   > solution/example/sketch2/src/foo.h

Important notes about maintaining Arduino compatibility.

In the above example foo.h could "#include "foo2.h" and foo2.h could include foo.h. During compilation they will both be in the same folder! foo.h would have to step up one folder to access bar.h #include "../bar.h"

The Arduino IDE supports the project root and the \src sub folder and any sub folders below it.

When working with more than one arduino project in a solution that also has shared projects. The intellisense in the shared project code will be based on the "Startup Project". That's the project that shows in bold in the solution explorer. Right click an Arduino project to "set as Startup Project"

Adding a reference to a shared project from an Arduino project automatically makes all code from the shared project available to the Arduino project.

It is not recommended to add linked (existing) sources to a shared project.

NOTE: Unless using GDB debug, you can not debug a Library Project yet. You can only debug Shared Code Projects and Arduino Projects

Hi,

I think you need to give more info. 

You are talking about how visual studio works with shared c++ projects and not visual micro. Normally Vs works okay for accessing files and I am debugging shared projects okay.

So that two strange things and might be something missing from the docs.

Please zip your project/solution/code and email so I can see what you have.

Thanks

Hi Tim, thanks for your detailed reply, very good for the understanding of VS. Actually, I did it exactly as you wrote.

I did a couple of tests and experienced that (at least during restructuring of the projects in VS/VM) it is crucial to "make clean" the solution and rebuild. After that, the strange syntax highlighting, openening other files than the files I expected, ... disappeared. Debugging is fine, too. 

I'll need some more time to further work on my solution and to better understand VS handling.

Thanks
Andreas