[laythea]

Cannot agree with you more. I personally hate chained expressions. Awful for debugging too.

[xxs]

Java debugging tools are beyond excellent for debugging such code (not that it should be written that way)

[laythea]

I still have to select the sub-expression whose value I wish to inspect. This involves precisely aiming the cursor at text, which is a lot of mental burden (x millions).

A task I thank the developer who creates a variable to hold such a reference, for it creates a much better experience.

[wtetzner]

It's only awful for debugging because the tools are awful.

[laythea]

The tools for Java are greate (try C++ if you disagree).

It's the code that is the problem here.

[wtetzner]

The tools for Java are much better than those for C++. However, claiming the code is the problem is silly. I'm not going to introduce a bunch of local variables just to appease a debugger.

If splitting on separate lines makes code more readable, then sure, do that. But often it just makes the code longer and harder to follow.