From: Michael Glaesemann <grzm@...>
Date: 2006-10-12T21:33:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Debugging in the large, modern practice?


On Oct 12, 2006, at 19:44 , Hugh Sasse wrote:

>  what are the parallel developments in debugging large
> systems?  By large, I mean sufficiently large to cause problems in
> the mental modelling of the dynamic nature of the process, and
> involving considerable quantities of other people's code.

Though I can't speak to your larger question as to history of  
debugging and its progress, I'm finding that writing (unit,  
functional) tests is really helping me understand my own applications  
better as well as understand the frameworks and other code they rely  
on. Tests can fail unexpectedly, and digging a bit to find the reason  
for the exhibited behavior can be very edifying. And as the scope of  
the test decreases, so does the number of parts that are contributing  
to the behavior. I've just had a good couple of days doing nothing  
but writing unit tests and I'm really happy with how I feel more  
comfortable with the code and its behavior.

Michael Glaesemann
grzm seespotcode net