TL;DR: Can the type information displayed in visual studio debugger/intellisense/compiler output for long type names from stl be cleaned up for the developer?
C++, Visual Studio
Consider the code:
std::map<int, int> m;
Consider the type information in
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The watch window
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With a mouse over on the identifier
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Intellisense prompt (parameters for a method, image formatted for brevity)
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(like #3) intellisense completion for an identifer as you type the name
Each of these cases is showing type descriptions for stl containers are a long mess of details infrequently needed.
I’ve noticed visual studio 2011 is now showing string as std::string (an awesome improvement), instead of std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char>> – but this doesn’t occur for other stl types I’ve tested.
I know why it is showing that info, I know the info is correct, and critically important in some cases. It is simply my opinion that most of the time, the developer couldn’t care less and map<int, int> would be sufficient. Any way to format or configure the output to reduce the noise?
The tool you are looking for STLFilt (http://www.bdsoft.com/tools/stlfilt.html).
Courtesy:http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/templates.html#fqa-35.17
Though the cryptic warnings/errors may be cumbersome to decode for a beginner, I would suggest you to get used to it, if you wish to be a pro.