I like what you've written and I'm a proponent of using GDB as well.
You should make that a blog entry.
Another thing you should note in there if you agree, is that GDB can be used through emacs. I don't use it much that way but it acts more like a real debugger and one can use the mouse for things directly within the screen, plus there are menus also accessible via the mouse. You also can pull up child windows for things like the stack and watch variables, memory views, etc.
- Edit a simple C source in emacs
- Issue compile command at the prompt, default is "make -k", just change that to be: gcc -ggdb -o <exe-name> <source-name>, this part is not necessary, but you can compile within emacs and a benefit is that you can browse for next error using the editor where it jumps right to each error and corrects line alignment if you edit/fix problems
- Issue debug command "gdb" at the prompt, it allows you to enter in options, but usually will pick good defaults and detect the executable file matching your source, especially if you compiled with it.
- From within the debugger you can do things like mouse left click near the left border of a source line to make a breakpoint, there are menu options to go, step, step-over, step-in, look at data, open sub-windows for things like watches, stack and so forth.
For those who can type and remember stuff, it's not always the best. Plus on a target system which may or may not have a display manager, knowing command line GDB is best.