From: Patrick Hurley <phurley@...>
Date: 2006-04-19T05:40:35+09:00
Subject: OT: Drifting off topic to debugger utility

On 4/18/06, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb@cesmail.net> wrote:
> I've been programming on Unix variants for 20 years and Linux for five
> years and I don't even know *how* to use the debugger! The last time I
> actually used a debugger of any mind was, if memory serves me correctly,
> in the late 1970s on a Xerox OS.
>
> Actually, I don't write unit tests either ... but that is something I
> intend to change now that I have a language and environment that
> supports them. :)
>
> Michael Greenly wrote:
> > James Moore wrote:
> >
> >> I'm confused as to why people think there's some sort of conflict
> >> between
> >> using a debugger and unit testing.  Those tests don't write themselves
> >> bug-free on pass one; having a debugger would be very useful when you're
> >> figuring out why they're failing.
> >>
> >> I'd agree that the debugger comes out of the toolbox less frequently,
> >> but
> >> it's still there and it's still useful.
> >>
> >>  - James
> >>
> >
> > Reading this I just realied I haven't fired up a debugger in well over a
> > year =/
> >
> >
>
> --
> M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
>
> http://linuxcapacityplanning.com
>
>
>

I will vote in on the rarely use a debugger camp. The single exception
(and this is rarely the case in Ruby :-), is when I have to figure out
someone slse's code and it does not have good unit tests and/or
logging. Then being able to spelunk around in a good debugger is very
useful (especially if it is _not_ multi-threaded).

pth