| ||
Mon 2024-12-02
Threads Won't Take You South of Market Sat 2024-11-30
Fri 2024-11-29
Wed 2024-11-27
Tue 2024-11-26
Sat 2024-11-23
Musk brigading government employees Thu 2024-11-21
Wed 2024-11-20
Search
Archives
2023
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
One good site
MDN
Nelson Minar
Blog licensed under a Creative Commons License
|
The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled
with judiciously placed print statements.
Twenty-five years later this still seems true. Most programmers I
know debug by printing stuff out. Even Linus Torvalds has famously
criticized debuggers.
— Brian Kernighan,
UNIX
for Beginners, 1979.
Why is that? It's not technology - there are some beautiful integrated debuggers that let you hook deep into running code and poke around. And it's not ignorance, at least for me - I've had many happy experiences with fancy debuggers in the past. But I still keep going back to printing stuff out. Why? For me it's about simplicity. Running a debugger on an active process is often awkward. And it's a bit spooky: I never quite fully understand what's going on. Still I can't help but feel like I'm working with stone age tools. |
|
