On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Scott Taylor <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:
> Yeah - I use a debugger all the time I regard using the debugger as a bit of a smell. It often means my code isn't clear enough to just bench-step through. In a way, it's like commenting. Complicated code often needs comments and debugging. Code should avoid being complicated. I also have found myself relying on the debugger and print statements too much, when a better approach is to take a step back and really ask myself what the problems could be. It's so easy just to insert a breakpoint and start examining variables, in the hopes that something will jump out at me. All that said, I don't understand my coworkers who don't know how to use the debugger (and who don't use my l() function). I've always said that in life, there's the fast hard way and the slow easy way. Learning to use tools effectively is the fast hard way. It takes effort, just like sharpening an axe. But you end up cutting down a lot more trees. The Smalltalk debugger, of course, is in a class by itself. When the debugger comes across a missing method - say, because you wrote the test before you wrote the method - it puts you - live! - in a skeleton of that method, complete with the actual passed parameters. You fill in the guts and continue on your way. Far too easy. No wonder it never caught on. ///ark
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