Confident Programmer Debugging Guide

Confident Programmer

Cloudy Heaven Games

Published by Cloudy Heaven Games, 2020.

Confident Programmer Debugging Guide

Published by Cloudy Heaven Games at Draft2Digital

Copyright 2020 Cloudy Heaven Games

Draft2Digital Edition, License Notes

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Introduction

A Debugging Story

The Problem Child

Tackling the Problem

Making Some Progress

Phantom Characters

Documenting Lessons Learned

Key Debugging Lessons

Gather any available output and data at the time of the crash.

Replicate the bug to get more information.

Take note of specific error messages, and identify parts of the code that seem to be related to the problem.

Know how to research error messages and find relevant information

Isolate the problem and get as much tracing/output data as you can, to track the course of the problem.

Be familiar with your software tools, so that you know how you can find and solve potential problems.

Once you've identified and fixed the problem, rerun the code with all test cases.

Document and share the lessons you learn while solving a bug.

How to Be a Calm, Confident Debugger

Understand the problem you are trying to solve.

Calmly establish the facts of the situation.

Know how and when to reach out for help.

Keep notes about the situation as you work through the bug.

Take a step away from the problem.

If you have a lot of bugs, use a bug tracking tool.

Using a Bug Tracker

A Debugging Process Checklist and Flow

The Checklist and Flow

A Practice Example

Not So Fast...

Identifying the Problem

Breaking Down the Program (Spoiler Alert!!!)

Doing Some Research

Putting It Together

A Possible Solution

...But Not Quite!

Another Handy Tip: Comparing Files

One Last Exercise

Some Recommended Resources

Accompanying Files

Text Editor

Search Engine and Research Skills

Bug Trackers and Defect Management

More About My Work

Appendix: Java Exercise Files

Numbers.java

Comments and Explanation on Numbers.java

Numbers2.java

Comments and Explanation on Numbers2.java

Numbers3.java

Comments and Explanation on Numbers3.java

Introduction

As a tutor, I often find that debugging even seemingly simple errors is a difficult task for many of my students. To be blunt, they usually have no idea how to even start approaching the problem. Sometimes they've been unable to make progress with an programming project, until our next session, in which I can help them fix the error in just a few minutes. So much frustration for them, and so much wasted time!

I've noticed that a lot of computer science courses don't seem to spend much time teaching students how to debug. That's a shame, because debugging and problem-solving are critical skills, not just in computer science and programming, but in other fields as well, even if no actual code is involved. For example, even in a field like management, professionals have to understand how processes work, document them, and pinpoint problems that occur so that they can develop, implement, and test solutions.

This guide is my attempt to help developers get better at debugging. It's mostly geared towards beginners, as experienced developers usually have a set of tools and tricks they've honed over the years, but anyone who feels they could use some improvement is welcome. As such, if an example seems to simple, or I seem like I'm