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by old_bayes21 hours ago |
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upvoteby makeitdouble20 hours ago|
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Depending on the language or setup debuggers can be really crappy. I think people here would just flee away and go find a better fitting stack, but for more pragmatic workers they'll just learn to debug with the other tools (REPL, structured logging, APMs etc.)
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upvoteby giveita20 hours ago|
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I had a think about where I first learned to use a debugger. The combo of M$ making it easy for .NET and VB6 and working professionally and learning from others was key. Surprised it is less popular. Tests have made it less necessary perhaps BUT debugging a unit test is a killer move. You quickly get to the breakpoint and can tweak the scenario.
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upvoteby NitpickLawyer18 hours ago|
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> I had a think about where I first learned to use a debugger

Is this not taught anymore? I started on borland C (the blue one, dos interface) and debugging was in the curriculum, 25+ years ago. Then moving to visual studio felt natural with the same concepts, even the same shortcuts mostly.

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upvoteby giveita17 hours ago|
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Nothing useful I do in my job was taught by another person in a classroom.
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upvoteby cluckindan16 hours ago|
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Clearly, you have been in the wrong classroom.
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upvoteby marssaxman5 hours ago|
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A good number of us were never in any classroom, when it comes to the skills we use in our careers.
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upvoteby giveita15 hours ago|
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Or the wrong jobs!
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upvoteby robertfw7 hours ago|
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my development workflow with python often boils down to repeatedly running `pytest --ff --pdb -x`...

- run my tests, running any previous failures first - drop into the debugger when a test fails (or of course, hits a breakpoint) - end the test run after the first failure

use debugger to figure out what went wrong, fix it, wash, rinse, repeat

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upvoteby nchmy20 hours ago|
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yeah, tons dont know they exist. But there's also a lot of people - new and veteran - who are just allergic to them, for various reasons.

Setting up a debugger is the very first thing i do when i start working with a new language, and always use it to explore the code on new projects.

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upvoteby DrSiemer15 hours ago|
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These days I'll just dump all relevant code into an LLM and have it explained to me instantly.

Being able to ask questions about the parts that are unclear (or just plain wrong) is so much easier than trying to cram the entire thing into my brain RAM.

In my experience it actually helps me learn faster too, since I rarely get stumped on random gotcha's anymore.

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upvoteby nchmy10 hours ago|
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Nah, i use debuggers all the time despite also using LLM agent all the time. They are great, but limited and often just go into a perpetual loop of not being able to debug something. I toss in some breakpoints and figure out exactly what is going on.
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upvoteby giveita20 hours ago|
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With VSCode it's often a 10 minute job to set up. We are spoiled! Back in the VS days using a Microsoft stack it was just there. Click to add breakpoint then F5.
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upvoteby nchmy10 hours ago|
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when i first started programming, with php, it took me literally weeks to figure out how to get xdebug set up. (pro tip: just use DDEV - it makes it all simple).

Not a second of that was a waste because xdebug (like all debuggers) is just that amazing.

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upvoteby 13 hours ago|
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deleted
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upvoteby gonzo4116 hours ago|
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This also applies to testing. So much legacy code out there that's untested.
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