[alexandercrohde]

I agree that GDB isn't substantive to the author's point, it's merely an example and validity of the argument as a whole isn't contingent on that one example.

However, I guess I'm not clear about the argument as a whole. The author is essentially claiming, "We write wrappers that are shoddy in that they don't consider failure cases."

That is true. What the author doesn't address is: what's the solution?

If the answer is "Code better," or "Think more," I feel like that's a straw-man.

I think the real question is how can we make a wrapper (e.g. a complex setup script) provide visibility into its problems (permissions issue, harddrive space, network issue, etc) without doubling the work involved?