Debugger Debate

Edgar Sanchez argues against using E&C to make changes to your code on the grounds that it "tries to save you from thinking and understanding." 

I would guess that 95% of the errors I run into while running the debugger are simple syntax errors, or minor logic errors.  I understand them the moment I run into them--they don't require much thought. How many of us have forgotten to initialize a variable, or mis-keyed the SQL Syntax, or the connection string?  How often have you forgotten to check for a 0-valued denomiator before dividing? E&C will allow me to make the minor corrections as necessary, leaving me free to focus my attention on more serious problems and issues. In other words, it saves me time.

The lack of E&C in VB .NET was the first thing I noticed and lamented when I migrated two years ago. Welcome back E&C, you're presence has been missed.

Comments

# re: F5 considered harmful

Tuesday, October 19, 2004 8:28 AM by TrackBack

# re: Debugger Debate

Saturday, October 23, 2004 5:17 AM by Jon Galloway

Agree.

Some bugs take a long time to reproduce, but are caused by very simple syntax errors. Some developers may consider it worthwhile to stop the program, fix the error, rebuild, and step through the 15 steps to recreate the error condition. I don't. Let me do it the easy way.

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