and how it would make my work flow easier
I have an iMac System running Mt.Lion and Xojo2013r2 … and a MacPro running Win7 also with Xojo2013r2
You develop on Mac. You set up and run remote debugger on Windows. Use the GUI version… works great. From Mac, instead of “Run”, choose, “Run Remotely”. The app runs on your Windows machine in debug mode. You can even generare profiler data, and read it in a local text editor.
I imagine that now, you move code across to Windows to debug. This save that step.
You wouldn’t need the full app on the Windows box, just the Remote Debugger app. You launch it there, then tell Xojo on your Mac where to find it through Preferences. Normally, when you run the app on your Mac, the app launches alongside the IDE. With remote debugging, the app will launch on the remote machine, but you can still use all the debugging tools on your Mac.
I do this using Parallels on the same desktop, but with a remote box, remote control software would help you so you don’t have to keep switch seats (if that’s an issue).
This is convenient because you don’t have to move a copy of your project to another machine or set up some other type of synchronization of the source files. You also don’t have to worry about plugins and whether you have the same versions on both platforms.
(Your question was very general so I hope, between Brad and me, you got your answer.)
Remote debugging also helps you to debug code in any ‘activate’ or ‘focus’ or ‘paint’ events, which you can’t do on the same machine the application is running on (since the debugger activating will change the focus of the window)
Others explained it well. Also see User Guide Book 3: Framework, Chapter 8: Debugging, Section 4: Remote Debugging for more information.
That hadn’t occured to me. Thanks for pointing it out.
Ok… color me stupid…
a) where is this remote debug app that is supposed to be installed on the remote machine?
b) when I click “debugging” in prefs, it won’t find any other machine in my network ( and there are 3 others)… is it looking for something specific? Each OS can see all the other machines… but XOJO pref can’t.
Never imagined I’d be in a position to give back a little of what I’ve gained from your knowledge over the years, but I’m certainly glad to do so.
[quote=32769:@Dave S]Ok… color me stupid…
a) where is this remote debug app that is supposed to be installed on the remote machine?[/quote]
It’s in the Extras folder. There’s a version for each desktop platform. I added mine to my login items so it’s always running.
[quote=32769:@Dave S]
b) when I click “debugging” in prefs, it won’t find any other machine in my network ( and there are 3 others)… is it looking for something specific?[/quote]
Yes, it’s looking for the Remote Debugger app mentioned above 
It will auto-discover machines on your network which are running the Remote Debugger app.
Finally figured it out…
I guess the “temporary folder” error message is normal?
“Windows cannote access C:/Xojo/etc…etc and will use a temporary folder”
Set the debug folder in its preferences.
Thanks for the tips. I’ve never had much success with the Remote debugger. If the debug build executable is around 10 MB, does it need to send that across the network each time you make a change and rebuild?
Yes, each time. But that’s rather small.
Yes. In prior versions the transfer was painfully slow (under 1MB/second even on gigabit ethernet, or when running on the same hardware in a virtual machine). I believe the speed is quite a bit better now, but I haven’t done much remote debugging in xojo just yet.
The combination of Xojo, Remote Debugger, and multiple Virtual Machines can be amazingly productive.
Maybe that is the issue. I had tried it under RS and I found it easier to just keep the source code in a sync folder between computers, where only the trivial changes to the source needed to make it across the network. I’ll try to revisit it with Xojo. Thanks.
The debug payload is gzipped now, which cuts the transfer time by up to 70%. 