msvcdb is a command-line interface to Microsoft's Visual C++ Integrated Development Environment. msvcdb feels a bit like gdb: in particular, it uses gdb-like names for commands ("step", "next", "finish" instead of "step into", "step over", "step out"). However, msvcdb also provides access to the Visual C++ build system, including choosing projects and configurations; it allows you to execute arbitrary MSVC commands (see Tools | Customize | Keyboard | All Commands for a list), and tries to work around some of MSVC's awkwardness.
msvcdb comes with an emacs-lisp file which allows you to run msvcdb as an inferior debugger process under (X)Emacs on Windows. Both standard ways of driving a debugger from Emacs are supported: talking to it on its command line works, and using keystroke commands to set breakpoints and control execution works. The source display even works, most of the time. (The msvcdb.el file just hooks into gud.el, so all that comes for free.) Optionally, the debugger mode will define some of the standard MSVC++ keys (F7=build, F5=run, etc.) globally in your Emacs.
msvcdb is free software under the GNU General Public License. It's written entirely in perl (which turns out to be an excellent language for manipulating COM objects under Win32).
Here's a thumbnail of how I use XEmacs with msvcdb: The thumbnail links to the main image. Be warned: the main image is 1280x1024 pixels, 8-bit color depth. That's 30k of compressed PNG, but still rather large.
The current version of msvcdb is 0.11, to be released "soon" (December 13, 2000 or so). You will be able to download msvcdb here:
If you have difficulties downloading these files, please bear with me -- they are currently hosted on my home server. Soon they will be put up on the SourceForge ftp server, which is substantially more reliable.
Read-only access to the CVS repository is also available; see Development, below.
msvcdb is currently usable; I use it every day. From time to time I make incremental improvements in it. Additional users/testers are needed, because I develop and test it on my own -- probably uncommon -- configuration. Additional developers would be welcome, especially if you've got ideas for new directions.