Improved documentation for extension development (pandas-dev#53380)

.gitignore

@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@
 .build_cache_dir
 .mesonpy-native-file.ini
 MANIFEST
+compile_commands.json
+debug
 
 # Python files #
 ################

doc/source/development/debugging_extensions.rst

@@ -13,3 +13,21 @@ For Python developers with limited or no C/C++ experience this can seem a daunti
   1. `Fundamental Python Debugging Part 1 - Python <https://willayd.com/fundamental-python-debugging-part-1-python.html>`_
   2. `Fundamental Python Debugging Part 2 - Python Extensions <https://willayd.com/fundamental-python-debugging-part-2-python-extensions.html>`_
   3. `Fundamental Python Debugging Part 3 - Cython Extensions <https://willayd.com/fundamental-python-debugging-part-3-cython-extensions.html>`_
+
+Generating debug builds
+-----------------------
+
+By default building pandas from source will generate a release build. To generate a development build you can type::
+
+    pip install -ve . --no-build-isolation --config-settings=builddir="debug" --config-settings=setup-args="-Dbuildtype=debug"
+
+By specifying ``builddir="debug"`` all of the targets will be built and placed in the debug directory relative to the project root. This helps to keep your debug and release artifacts separate; you are of course able to choose a different directory name or omit altogether if you do not care to separate build types.
+
+Editor support
+--------------
+
+The meson build system generates a `compilation database <https://clang.llvm.org/docs/JSONCompilationDatabase.html>`_ automatically and places it in the build directory. Many language servers and IDEs can use this information to provide code-completion, go-to-defintion and error checking support as you type.
+
+How each language server / IDE chooses to look for the compilation database may vary. When in doubt you may want to create a symlink at the root of the project that points to the compilation database in your build directory. Assuming you used *debug* as your directory name, you can run::
+
+    ln -s debug/compile_commands.json .