If you need to step with debugger, it means you are probably not understanding the code and cannot step through in your mind. Good test suite eliminates the need to debugger too.
Yeah, in my field this approach is pretty much infeasible.
Typically, I am given an ancient code base that is full of bad decisions, hard to read code and no tests in sight. Sometimes there are assertions, if I am lucky. It's impractical to create a reliably test suite, or rewrite everything from scratch.
Here, I heavily rely on a debugger just to make sense of the code. Sure, I'd wish that all of this code would just be sparkling clean, easy to read, free of UB, etc. But that's not the reality I work in, and good debugger is my number one tool getting the job done.
And don't even get me started on dealing with closed source implementations where all you could read is disassembly.
Typically, I am given an ancient code base that is full of bad decisions, hard to read code and no tests in sight. Sometimes there are assertions, if I am lucky. It's impractical to create a reliably test suite, or rewrite everything from scratch.
Here, I heavily rely on a debugger just to make sense of the code. Sure, I'd wish that all of this code would just be sparkling clean, easy to read, free of UB, etc. But that's not the reality I work in, and good debugger is my number one tool getting the job done.
And don't even get me started on dealing with closed source implementations where all you could read is disassembly.