Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
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Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#2Ken Thompson said that never happpend; they didn't need to look at each others code, because they were all "pretty god coders": http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/qa...
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#3I think if you are just pushing through (brute force) to fix a bug "without thinking" then you will never figure it out. Also, "thinking before" as the article claims, without actually looking at the code or stack traces, that's just mental brute force.
Pretty much it's a combination of both: you look at the code, you think about what's happening and what could go wrong, you look at the code again, you think some more, you look at stacks, variables, output.. and then you think again and BOOM: you figure it out.
The best debugging tool is you. Use all you have.
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#4Ken Thompson said that never happpend; they didn't need to look at each others code, because they were all "pretty god coders": http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/qa...
That quote (and you misquoted, btw) is from an interview discussing his working relationship with Dennis Ritchie. The particular quote is from a section of the article titled "On Collaborating With Dennis Ritchie"
"Dr. Dobb's: Was there any concept of looking at each other's code or doing code reviews?
Thompson: [Shaking head] We were all pretty good coders."
Nothing to do with Rob Pike, who has worked with Ken for decades since.
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#5Ken was watching Rob soften the lid on the jar only to swoop in at the right time and deal the decisive blow. ;D
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#6Ken Thompson said that never happpend; they didn't need to look at each others code, because they were all "pretty god coders": http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/qa...
Ken Thompson was replying to a question about code reviews there. Code reviewing is not quite the same as pair programming (and they probably didn't even call it pair programming then).
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#7Ken Thompson said that never happpend; they didn't need to look at each others code, because they were all "pretty god coders": http://www.informationweek.com/software/operating-systems/qa...
Your link is discussing the development of Unix, which was before Rob Pike came on the scene. Rob Pike is discussing an incident that happened a number of years later when Rob would have been significantly junior to Ken.
There is no reason that both versions of history can't be true.
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#8You are only so smart. Once the complexity of the programming model reaches a certain point a debugger is necessary to validate and discover the true nature of a system. Often that point is quite low.
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#9Does the order of the two terminal conditions matter? / Think about it.
Does the order of the two terminal conditions matter? / Try it out!
Does the order of the two previous answers matter? / Yes. Think first, then try.
- The Little Schemer
Re: Rob Pike: The Best Programming Advice I Ever Got.
#10You are only so smart. Once the complexity of the programming model reaches a certain point a debugger is necessary to validate and discover the true nature of a system. Often that point is quite low.
>>You are only so smart. Once the complexity of the programming model reaches a certain point a debugger is necessary to validate and discover the true nature of a system.
That is true but if you rely only on the tools, you will never gain a smarter understanding of the systems you are working with.