Plugin to facilitate debugging iOS applications using Kotlin Native in Xcode. Defines Kotlin files as source code, with basic highlighting. Allows you to set breakpoints and includes llvm support to view data in the debug window.
Touchlab is looking for Android-focused mobile engineers, experienced with Kotlin and looking to get involved with Kotlin Multiplatorm in the near future. More info here.
Check out the blog post and sign up for the live video demo on Friday 4/26 (3pm EST).
Run the following command in your terminal:
./setup.sh
Please note that if you are running Xcode 8 the Plug-ins and Specifications directories might not exist.
-
Copy the
Kotlin.ideplugindirectory to~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Plug-ins/:cp -r Kotlin.ideplugin ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Plug-ins/ -
Copy the
Kotlin.xclangspecfile to~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Specifications:cp Kotlin.xclangspec ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Specifications/
lldb formatting support is provided by konan_lldb.py. The setup script will add
the path to ~/.lldbinit. You can manually load this script at the lldb prompt
with
command script import ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/Plug-ins/Kotlin.ideplugin/Contents/Resources/konan_lldb.py
If properly set up, you should be able to add Kotlin source to Xcode, set up breakpoints, and step through code. Be careful not to have Kotlin source added to the iOS Bundle output.
To help automate adding Kotlin source, check out the Kotlin Xcode Sync Gradle plugin.
The Droidcon NYC app has both the Xcode Gradle sync and Xcode projects enabled for debugging.
Setting up the Plugin has been an amalgam of various source projects, as Xcode "Plugins" are undocumented. The most significant piece, the language color file, came from other color files shipped with Xcode. Xcode plugin file from GraphQL
LLDB formatting originally comes from the Kotlin/Native project, source konan_lldb.py, although the way data is grabbed has been heavily modified to better support an interactive debugger.
The current version of the plugin will still allow you to add breakpoints and run the debugger, but source code highlighting is not yet functional. When Xcode 11 releases we'll dig back into the situation.
The plugin itself relies on the lldb python formatter which was mostly adapted from the lldb formatter that comes with Kotlin Native. That script was really written for command line use. In an interactive context (like this plugin) the performance isn't great. Most of our changes are around optimizations. However, there are ongoing changes both to the underlying script and (possibly) to the memory layout of Kotlin Native itself at runtime.
The script in this plugin could use a refresh with a more recent base version from Kotlin Native, and if possible, refactor the optimizations to be as close to "stock" as possible, to make future updates easier.
The formatter also takes a very basic approach to data formatting. Lists are capped at 20 entries to avoid super long refreshes. Maps show their underlying data structures, but could get custom formatting (for example). There is a lot that could be done.
We currently can't get some things like class name. This could be enabled with moderate additions to Kotlin Native debug facilities.
The breakpoints and runtime usually line up, but they can get weird. This is especially true around things like lambdas. This may be related to what the llvm compiler is writing, or it may simply be an artifact of how Xcode is setting breakpoints. We'll need reports and repros of code that confuses the debugger to see if that can be improved.
The color definition is basically Java's with minor additions. This could be better adapted to Kotlin.
It's a bash script, which works, but does not take into account non-standard install directories and various other possible config options. This could be improved.
Every time Xcode is updated we need the UUID. It needs to be added to Kotlin.ideplugin/Contents/Info.plist. To find the
UUID of your version of Xcode, run the following:
defaults read /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Info DVTPlugInCompatibilityUUID
Info from here