21–30 of 80 posts
Cut the interview short. Thank them for their time then escort to the exit.
How quickly do you guys whip out the debugger when you encounter a bug? I often can figure it out by reading the code (I'm the quickest jump-to-source in the wild west!) quicker than I can from inserting print stmts or hooking up a debugger. I've also decided that I dislike having my IDE be my debugger, I prefer having an entirely separate UI for that. Maybe this is because I use Emacs and DAP mode and gdb is quite p…
I tend to use a debugger when I start to log too many things. It's a sign I should use a debugger to run the code, stop the execution where I'd put the logs and then explore the context and stack trace.
I also use Emacs (I'm mainly a Scala dev) and still fire up Intellij for debugging most of the time.
On one of Gordon Ramsey's shows he had a chef who purported to be one of the best in the world. While cooking his scallops kept sticking to the pan, this makes them look bad and Gordon won't serve them looking like that. Gordon yelled something like "Why aren't you using the non-stick pans, it's right there in the name, non-stick". I hear his voice in my head at least once a month when one of the people I work with s…
The truth is a bit less dramatic than you made it. Wasnt the best scallops chef in the world, at most the best of 5 trainees at a certain restaurant.
Makes me optimistic. Maybe there still is a world class programmer who doesnt use a debugger!
What makes me pessimistic is the lack of any usable rr equivalent for python. Think rpython had it or something but not the latest version.
Classic interview question. Tell me about the time you used a debugger to solve a programming issue. Saying "I don't use a debugger" is like saying to a C programmer "I don't use pointers". Cut the interview short. Thank them for their time then escort to the exit.
How quickly do you guys whip out the debugger when you encounter a bug? I often can figure it out by reading the code (I'm the quickest jump-to-source in the wild west!) quicker than I can from inserting print stmts or hooking up a debugger. I've also decided that I dislike having my IDE be my debugger, I prefer having an entirely separate UI for that. Maybe this is because I use Emacs and DAP mode and gdb is quite p…
I suspect this will be controversial, but I read TPOP at a young age and I think it still summarizes my overall view. The quote from the article continues: Blind probing with a debugger is not likely to be productive. It is more helpful to use the debugger to discover the state of the program when it fails, then think about how the failure could have happened. Debuggers can be arcane and difficult programs, and espec…
I'd be interested in developing more tools based on abstract interpretation and symbolic execution of the programs themselves and generally be able to query your tools more.
For example, let's say that you find a program state with the debugger which is invalid, the next question is then "How can this function reach this state?". This can be answered by the symbolic execution engine, giving you a function-local path. Then you can look at the callers of this function and ask the engine to do the same resolution on that level.
Being able to formulate questions and have them answered would lead to a question/reply-driven method of working, which I think would be very helpful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your IDE is anything like mine, you will have a little button with a bug on it. You don't click it, even out of desperation at any point in your career? I get really tired and demotivated working with people who are like that, you have to hand feed them everything. Come to think about it, using the debugger is probably the best indicator I've seen if you are a good programmer or not, I've never seen anyone bad at…
My point is that the debugger may help you understand the bug, but does not remove it. A better name for the tool would be something like bugfinder, or steprunner. > You don't click it, even out of desperation at any point in your career? I think I've never used an IDE since the (good) times of borland C++. > I get really tired and demotivated working with people who are like that You would probably hate working with…
On one of Gordon Ramsey's shows he had a chef who purported to be one of the best in the world. While cooking his scallops kept sticking to the pan, this makes them look bad and Gordon won't serve them looking like that. Gordon yelled something like "Why aren't you using the non-stick pans, it's right there in the name, non-stick". I hear his voice in my head at least once a month when one of the people I work with s…
It's a curious observation. If it's true your work environment must be very different to mine.
Classic interview question. Tell me about the time you used a debugger to solve a programming issue. Saying "I don't use a debugger" is like saying to a C programmer "I don't use pointers". Cut the interview short. Thank them for their time then escort to the exit.
On one of Gordon Ramsey's shows he had a chef who purported to be one of the best in the world. While cooking his scallops kept sticking to the pan, this makes them look bad and Gordon won't serve them looking like that. Gordon yelled something like "Why aren't you using the non-stick pans, it's right there in the name, non-stick". I hear his voice in my head at least once a month when one of the people I work with s…
You have colleagues who spend a week investigating a bug and it doesn't occur to them reproduce it under a debugger (as opposed to it not being debuggable for some reason, eg. not reproducible locally)? Really? And this happens at least monthly? It's a curious observation. If it's true your work environment must be very different to mine.