In most cases the only thing that I have found helpful for debugging is lots of data (maybe even a little data). Nothing tests your assumptions more than lots of examples. I think the main reason is that code is tested with the same dataset, found to be error free and then the developer moves on. Once the error is found, it shows up when you are not looking for it, and you have the added assumption that 'that code works'.
No debugger can ever help too much with this, automated tests can never be extensive enough to test this because the main issue is that the developer screwed up and made an assumption. If s/he made it when writing the code, why wouldn't s/he make the same assumption when writing the test? The only thing that a debugger has shown to me is that I'm an idiot, that is, if I could read/write code better, I wouldn't need the debugger. More important is to avoid the anti-debugger in Tcl: catch. There are only a few places where this command has any use. If you don't overdose on catch, the usual AOLserver stacktrace usually locates the error. tom jackson On Tuesday 05 September 2006 17:10, Dave Bauer wrote: > On 9/5/06, John Buckman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > As to "why a debugger for aolserver"? > > > > Any large web-based application shares many of the same complexity > > problems of traditional applications, and from my C++ days, I learned > > that I should never leave code in that I hadn't stepped through at > > least once. > > > > Lots of the bugs on BookMooch (22,000 lines of Tcl procs at launch) > > have been logic errors, and in the beta and first month of launching > > BookMooch, my bug database reports 414 separate bugs fixed. That's a > > lot of code, and a proper debugger is nice. > > > > One nice thing tclhttpd has is a debug mode that gives you a stack > > track, and a few other introspection features when a Tcl error > > occurs. Might be worth borrowing the concept. > > I rely on automated tests to catch this kind of stuff (Now totally off > topic!) Feel free to start another discussion if you are interested in > how we use automated testing in OpenACS. > > Dave -- AOLserver - http://www.aolserver.com/ To Remove yourself from this list, simply send an email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with the body of "SIGNOFF AOLSERVER" in the email message. You can leave the Subject: field of your email blank.
