[hzhou321]

I agree. The post was full of appealing to authority that gives me disgust. And I do not like and use debugger.

I am not going to appeal to authority, so I'll describe how I debug. 30% of my debugging is with pencil and scratch paper. 30% of my debugging is with print. And 30% of my debugging is with refactoring. The last 10% of debugging is with profiler. I do use gdb, mostly in scripting mode. I also do breakpoints manually, that goes into less than 1% and get rounded off.

I program with a meta-layer, so that I can write `$print "string interpolated with variables" in a semi-universal syntax and works for all languages that I work with. The meta layer does the parsing and translation. More importantly, the meta-layer organizes the debugging part so it can easily turn-on-off and not to clutter the actual code. Without that, I, too, cannot imagine debug with print will work.

By refactoring, I mean moving the part of code out of the way, or temporary removing or rewrite part of code that I am not sure. This is again, only possible with a meta layer that allows moving parts of code and re-organizing the code without necessarily changing the code. I cannot imaging how one can truly understand complex code without actually probing the code parts by parts.

Then I have seen the new generation of people who grow up with electronic devices and are more used to mouse than pencil. Electronic device can never match the ease and disposable nature of paper and pencil, so I cannot imagine how one could debug by merely navigating the code with an editor.

So while I do not use debugger for debugging, I can perfectly understand how one cannot live without debugger.

[coldtea]

>I agree. The post was full of appealing to authority that gives me disgust. And I do not like and use debugger.

Appeals to authority as opposed to what alternative? Untested arguments? Anecdotal personal stories ("I am not going to appeal to authority, so I'll describe how I debug")?

(See my answer elsewhere in the thread for why almost everything is "appeal to authority" or worse in IT anyway).

[hzhou321]

Alternative to what?

I guess we are implying different objectives here. To convince someone, appeal to authority might be quick effective. But I don't care about convince you or anyone. I care about reasoning. So I show you how I debug, and I say something about my reasoning behind it, and I also think I understand how someone would not work and think the same way as I do. What results I am seeking? If you find there is flaw in my reasoning, blind spots in my thinking, point/comment back to me, it is an opportunity for me to improve. If you find my reasoning makes sense, but the conclusion does not, feedback to me and I may also improve. If you fully agree with me, I may get a boost in my ego. The last one is in my instinct, but I am not sure I really want that.

I will, however, most likely argue back for the potential feedback. Only through arguing back and forth, I truly can understand the feedback and morph into a form that I can use to improve. I often do improve my reasoning even there is no conclusion for the argument yet. It is easy to gain when background and reasoning are provided. So I always provide them, hopefully who ever participates also gain.