[quotemstr]

> IMHO when debugging software needs to be automated to the point that a library needs to be written (and itself debugged),

I've hacked plenty of GDB. It's just a program like anything else. Why wouldn't you want to debug it? There's nothing mystical or special about it. When you combine th features you describe with code (which are, in fact, quite non-trivial) with code to look up symbols, deal with remote gdbserver instances, papering over extreme differences between operating systems and executable formats, you end up with a very complex program that has the same maintenance needs as any other.

[bulutsuzku]

Of course you_can_do_everything_in_assembler.

Nobody discuss about mystical or special in debug a debugger, but everything is about to invest lot of energy and time. Even launching GDB is a pain. And theres's a reason why many research live debugging using Smalltalk. When you debug a debugger you want as much as reflection as possible and Smalltalk has reified almost all of the internal machinery (see for example Moldable Debugger).