[PaulHoule]

For me debuggers are the first resort. I learned a long time ago that if you get in the habit of hacking the code to debug it (say adding print statements) you will eventually check in debug-related changes that you shouldn't. Using the debugger means you don't have to hack the source code.

I use Jetbrains tools and have an easy time debugging in Java, Python and Javascript. In Java I'd say that you can use unit tests to interactively experiment the same way people do with the CLI in Python with the difference that you get unit tests out of the deal as opposed to having lines scroll away in the console.

I use WebStorm to debug Javascript programs that run in npm but if it is running in the browser I just use the "developer tools" from Firefox, Chrome, Edge or Safari. I think there is some way to attach WebStorm to a running web browser but I've never figured it completely out.

I think the Unix culture is allergic to debugging. It's not that hard to use gdb from the command line and in fact you can do some pretty awesome things with it such as embedded system debugging or debugging the C++ and Java sides of an application at the same time, but for a long time I kept trying graphical front ends for gdb such as ddd that "just don't work".

[vr46]

I started out using debuggers because it made sense to step through the execution, then stopped for years as a junior- and mid-level because nobody else did, least of all the toxic lead engineers that were liberally sprinkled over every London agency I worked in, and then eventually turned 40, at which point I instantly stopped giving a shit about what anyone thought of me, and went back to being a totally-non-rock-stroke-ninja coder again. Debugging.

It’s not just Unix culture that’s allergic to debugging, it’s every chancer and charlatan the world over.