Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 145 posts

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#61

Post by lopkeny12ko »

D4ckard wrote: post #58
bregma wrote: post #56

So, only self-hosted debugging on x86_64 Linux. A good start. Now make it work for other common CPUs (aarch64, RISC-V). Make it work for other OSes (FreeBSD has ptrace, for example). Make sure it handles signal and thread trampolines, calls through the VDSO, and handwritten assembler that does not have function prologues. Handle C++ constructors and destructors of objects in static storage running before/after main()…

Yeah, I don't think so. It's x86_64 only, and C only too. Some points from your list make sense now, but most of it is simply not part of Spray's scope, and never has been ...

The point the parent commenter is trying to make is that building a general purpose C debugger is not some kind of trivial exercise that can be shipped in 6 months, and claiming to have done so is disingenuous and pompous.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#62

Post by thibaut_barrere »

bluetomcat wrote: post #32

Looks especially clean, consistent and well-modularised, tackling a problem that requires non-trivial knowledge about binary formats and kernel APIs. Many "senior" programmers would struggle to build something like this even at a conceptual level. The antithesis of "kids these days" :-) Out of curiosity, how does a 17-year-old attain that level of knowledge? Books, peers, programming clubs, parents who are programmer…

I can reply because I was in the same situation at a younger age, at a time with no internet then limited internet.

Raw curiosity & having "just access to the required hardware" (a huge "just") and a bit of books & magazines can take you a long way.

My parents were not programmers but my father bought computers early on (1984), and later brought compilers at home (via his work), e.g. TurboPascal, C++, and let me experiment.

I learned mostly via magazines & books, and later a bit of exchanges with peers (demomaking), and also via buying disks (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/DP_Tool_Club) that contained documentation (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralf_Brown%27s_Interrupt_List) and arrived via snail mail.

I "just" gradually iterated and coded small stuff, then gradually more complicated stuff (Windowing toolkit in CGA, a Tetris clone, a Bomberman clone, FFT software, and ultimately 3D realtime rendering without any FPU, only in software, with Phong rendering and such https://github.com/thbar/demomaking#obez-1995).

I was not an isolated case in the sense I ended up stumbling on other teenagers (via the demomaking world) who did exactly the same thing.

Today a curious kid can go probably much further, as long as curiosity is encouraged :-)

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#63

Post by vimy »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #59

What others need to understand is that, unlike the older generation, kids today have grown up in the era of easily accessible computing. Someone who is 17 today was born in the year the original iPhone was introduced. Computing literacy is not only required, it is expected from a very young age. What might have been impressive to us 20-30 years ago is not really the same as it is now. Cool project, but as other comme…

It’s the opposite. Computer literacy has gone down for gen Z, iOS and Android are too simple and locked down.

So this is very impressive at that age.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#64

Post by thibaut_barrere »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #61
D4ckard wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't think so. It's x86_64 only, and C only too. Some points from your list make sense now, but most of it is simply not part of Spray's scope, and never has been ...

The point the parent commenter is trying to make is that building a general purpose C debugger is not some kind of trivial exercise that can be shipped in 6 months, and claiming to have done so is disingenuous and pompous.

> claiming to have done so is disingenuous and pompous.

I don't read anything that might express that?

Especially with:

>> Its feature set is limited at this point, but it's already enough to tackle some basic problems.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#65

Post by marcus0x62 »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #59

What others need to understand is that, unlike the older generation, kids today have grown up in the era of easily accessible computing. Someone who is 17 today was born in the year the original iPhone was introduced. Computing literacy is not only required, it is expected from a very young age. What might have been impressive to us 20-30 years ago is not really the same as it is now. Cool project, but as other comme…

Did you read the first paragraph after you wrote it? If you did, and then posted it anyway, I don’t really know what to say. But, in any case, “Computing literacy” != “wrote a debugger.”

Your post comes off more delusional (or just ignorant) than the OP ever came off as self-promotional.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#67

Post by sdwr »

ManuelKiessling wrote: post #55
bluetomcat wrote: post #32

Looks especially clean, consistent and well-modularised, tackling a problem that requires non-trivial knowledge about binary formats and kernel APIs. Many "senior" programmers would struggle to build something like this even at a conceptual level. The antithesis of "kids these days" :-) Out of curiosity, how does a 17-year-old attain that level of knowledge? Books, peers, programming clubs, parents who are programmer…

Tangential: my gut feeling is that this is a very good use case for GPTs; I’m an experienced application developer and sysadmin, but wouldn’t even know where to start if I’d want to tackle this sort of topic. I’m pretty sure ChatGPT would point me in the right direction and allow me to tackle the first important steps.

Yeah this is the dream for ChatGPT. Someone with enthusiasm, some knowledge, and tons of free time.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#68

Post by lopkeny12ko »

marcus0x62 wrote: post #65
lopkeny12ko wrote: post #59

What others need to understand is that, unlike the older generation, kids today have grown up in the era of easily accessible computing. Someone who is 17 today was born in the year the original iPhone was introduced. Computing literacy is not only required, it is expected from a very young age. What might have been impressive to us 20-30 years ago is not really the same as it is now. Cool project, but as other comme…

Did you read the first paragraph after you wrote it? If you did, and then posted it anyway, I don’t really know what to say. But, in any case, “Computing literacy” != “wrote a debugger.” Your post comes off more delusional (or just ignorant) than the OP ever came off as self-promotional.

[flagged]

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#69

Post by roadbuster »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #61
D4ckard wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't think so. It's x86_64 only, and C only too. Some points from your list make sense now, but most of it is simply not part of Spray's scope, and never has been ...

The point the parent commenter is trying to make is that building a general purpose C debugger is not some kind of trivial exercise that can be shipped in 6 months, and claiming to have done so is disingenuous and pompous.

The parent commenter doesn't need to piss on a 17 year old for sharing their work and progress. You could also take a moment to step back and reflect on this.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 months building a C debugger as a 17-year-old

#70

Post by Bombinator »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #68
marcus0x62 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the first paragraph after you wrote it? If you did, and then posted it anyway, I don’t really know what to say. But, in any case, “Computing literacy” != “wrote a debugger.” Your post comes off more delusional (or just ignorant) than the OP ever came off as self-promotional.

[flagged]

Isn't that implying OP is a script kiddie? I don't think writing a debugger is a script kiddie project.
Post reply on HN