[/
  Copyright 2011 - 2025 John Maddock.
  Copyright 2013 - 2019 Paul A. Bristow.
  Copyright 2013 - 2025 Christopher Kormanyos.

  Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
  (See accompanying file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at
  http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt).
]

[section:visualizers Visual C++ Debugger Visualizers]

[important This section is seriously out of date compared to recent Visual C++ releases. A modernization of Multiprecision's visualizers is planned for Visual Studio 2022 (and beyond). The legacy description has been maintained and is provided below.]

Let's face it, debugging multiprecision numbers is challenging - simply because we can't easily inspect the value of the numbers.
Visual C++ provides a partial solution in the shape of "visualizers" which provide improved views of complex data structures.

Previously, there was preliminary support for visualizers within older versions of Visual Studio.
These legacy visualizers needed to be added to the `[Visualizer]` section of `autoexp.dat` located in the `Common7/Packages/Debugger`
directory of the local Visual Studio installation.  The actual visualizer code had previously been stored in the sandbox.

[note These visualizers have only been tested with VC10, also given the ability of buggy visualizers to crash your Visual C++
debugger, make sure you back up `autoexp.dat` file before using these!!]

The first visualizer provides improved views of `debug_adaptor`:

[$../debugger1.png]

The next visualizer provides improved views of cpp_int: small numbers are displayed as actual values, while larger numbers are
displayed as an array of hexadecimal parts, with the most significant part first.

Here's what it looks like for small values:

[$../debugger4.png]

And for larger values:

[$../debugger5.png]

There is also a `~raw` child member that
lets you see the actual members of the class:

[$../debugger6.png]

The visualizer for `cpp_dec_float` shows the first few digits of the value in the preview field, and the full array of digits
when you expand the view.  As before the `~raw` child gives you access to the actual data members:

[$../debugger7.png]

[endsect] [/section:visualizers Visual C++ Debugger Visualizers]