[epenn]

To expand on your point, I look at print statements in the same light as goto statements. There is a time and place for both, just make sure it's the best tool to accomplish your goal. In C I often use gotos for error handling, but I wouldn't use them in situations where higher-level branching constructs are more suitable. Similarly, sometimes you don't need the features of a heavy-weight debugger but just want to check some output. Print statements are great for this.

[epenn]

Normally I wouldn't comment on someone downvoting me. However I'm going to presume there is a very high probability that it's due to my analogy with the goto statement, something which most programmers seem to view as inherently evil thanks either to received dogma or to a misunderstanding of the context of Dijkstra's original paper on the subject. The point of my post was that there is a time and place for everything -- print statements in the context of this thread -- and I used gotos as an additional analogy/example. So in case anyone sees this and wonders why I would actually consciously choose to use a goto statement, please see the following goto entry in CERT's Secure Coding Standard [1] for a concise but thorough explanation.

https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/seccode...

[haberman]

Agree completely. I use gotos for error handling in C, as does the Linux kernel, and I agree that fundamentalist anti-goto sentiment is unjustifiably dogmatic.

[memracom]

Exceptions are gotos. Just like singleton objects are global variables.

And knee jerk reactions can get you killed.