To show the elements of an array given a pointer in the watch window, just add a
comma followed by the number of elements to display:

pArray,25

------- Function Evaluation -------

Call program code from debugger
Use quickwatch window, not watch window. e.g. DumpInfo (pFoo)
Great for debug data
Use OutputDebugString or printf
Limitations 20 seconds max.
Terminate on exception.
Only one thread

You can do debug output using OutputDebugString (through our DebugOutStraight call).
You can also use this to write strings into memory locations by calling sprintf( someString, "a b c d" ).

------- Casting In The Debugger -------

When in the debugger, you can display a symbol even if it's not in the current module
or if it's a static in another file.

The base syntax is {functionName, cppFilename, dllFilename}, but you can usually leave out the first
two elements like this:

{,,foo.dll}(CMyClass*)pObject or {,,foo.dll}symbolName

If that doesn't work, add the filename:
{,physics_environment.cpp,vphysics.dll}(CSleepObjects*)pObject

so using an expression like this inside the engine works:

{,,client.dll}(C_BaseEntity*){*}pEntity
{,,client.dll}engine

Note: You can use this to watch the values of local variables in functions up the stack.
If there's a function like Host_Frame that calls a lot of other functions, and you want to
watch one of its variables while in other functions, you can do:

{Host_Frame,,engine.dll}someVar

------- Display GetLastError's value and message -------

You can display the value GetLastError() will return by putting "@err" in your watch window.
You can see the error message associated with that value by putting "@err,hr" in your watch window.
If you've placed an HRESULT in a variable, adding ",hr" to the variable name in the watch window will
display the associated text.

------- Formatting data in the watch window -------

Most of this was lifted from "Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows"
by John Robbins.

To specify the formatting for an expression in the watch window, add a comma, then the format
specifier. So "someValue,d" would tell it you want to view the variable called someValue
as a signed decimal integer.

Symbol Format Description
------ ------------------

d or i Signed decimal integer
u Unsigned decimal integer
o Unsigned octal integer
x or X Hexadecimal integer
f Floating point
e Scientific notation
g Floating point OR scientific, whichever is shorter
c Single character
s ANSI string
su Unicode string
hr HRESULT or Win32 error code
wc Windows class flag
wm Windows message number

You can also put a pointer in the watch window and have it show a memory dump in a specific format.
For example, "0xabcdef,ma" would show 64 ASCII characters at 0xabcdef.

Symbol Format Description
------ ------------------

ma 64 ASCII characters
m 16 bytes in hex format followed by 16 ASCII characters
mw 8 words
md 4 doublewords
mq 4 quadwords
mu 2-byte characters (Unicode)
# Expand an array to the specified number of values (pArray,10)

Note: There is a way to add your own custom expansions for types into the debugger by making
a DLL that converts the type's data into a string. They're called "Expression Evaluator Add-Ins".
This may only be supported in .NET.

------- Avoiding Stepping Into Things -------

It's often useful to avoid stepping into some common code like constructors or overloaded
operators. autoexp.dat provides this capability. Add a section called "[ExecutionControl]".
Add keys where the key is the function name and the value is "NoStepInto". You can specify
an asterisk (*) as a wildcard as the first set of colons for a namespace or class.

autoexp.dat is only read on Visual Studio's start up.

To ignore the function myfunctionname, and all calls to the class CFoo:
[ExecutionControl]
myfunctionname=NoStepInto CFoo::*=NoStepInto

To ignore construction and assignment of MFC CStrings: (Notice the extra = in CString::operator=.)
[ExecutionControl]
CString::CString=NoStepInto CString::operator==NoStepInto

To ignore all ATL calls:
[ExecutionControl]
ATL::*=NoStepInto

------- Syntax Highlighting For New File Extensions -------

To get syntax highlighting for new file extensions, open RegEdit and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Devstudio\6.0\Text Editor\Tabs/Language Settings.
Pick the closest language under there and add your extension to its FileExtensions key.
For example, you would add PHP files to HTML/FileExtensions since they are essentially
HTML files.