The Artima Developer Community
Sponsored Link

Uncle Bob's Software Craftsmanship Corner
Debuggers are a wasteful Timesink
by Robert C. Martin
November 29, 2003
Summary
As debuggers have grown in power and capability, they have become more and more harmful to the process of software development.

Advertisement

Debuggers have become immensely powerful. A good debugger is a very capable tool. With it, an experienced developer can step through very complex code, look at all the variables, data structures, and stack frames; even modify the code and continue. And yet, for all their power, debuggers have done more to damage software development than help it.

Since I started using Test Driven Development in 1999, I have not found a serious use for a debugger. The kinds of bugs I have to troubleshoot are easily isolated by my unit tests, and can be quickly found through inspection and a few judiciously placed print statements.

I teach a lot of classes in C++, Java, C#, TDD, XP, Patterns, etc. In those classes I often have the students write code. It is not unusual for me to find a student with his or her nose buried in a debugger, painstakingly stepping from line to line, examining variables, setting breakpoints, and generally wasting time. The bug they are tracking could be found through simple inspection of the code.

I consider debuggers to be a drug -- an addiction. Programmers can get into the horrible habbit of depending on the debugger instead of on their brain. IMHO a debugger is a tool of last resort. Once you have exhausted every other avenue of diagnosis, and have given very careful thought to just rewriting the offending code, *then* you may need a debugger.

Talk Back!

Have an opinion? Readers have already posted 90 comments about this weblog entry. Why not add yours?

RSS Feed

If you'd like to be notified whenever Robert C. Martin adds a new entry to his weblog, subscribe to his RSS feed.

About the Blogger

Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob) has been a software professional since 1970 and an international software consultant since 1990. He is founder and president of Object Mentor Inc., a team of experienced consultants who mentor their clients worldwide in the fields of C++, Java, OO, Patterns, UML, Agile Methodologies, and Extreme Programming. In 1995 Robert authored the best-selling book: Designing Object Oriented C++ Applications using the Booch Method, published by Prentice Hall. From 1996 to 1999 he was the editor-in-chief of the C++ Report. In 1997 he was chief editor of the book: Pattern Languages of Program Design 3, published by Addison Wesley. In 1999 he was the editor of "More C++ Gems" published by Cambridge Press. He is co-author, with James Newkirk, of "XP in Practice", Addision Wesley, 2001. In 2002 he wrote the long awaited "Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices", Prentice Hall, 2002. He has published many dozens of articles in various trade journals, and is a regular speaker at international conferences and trade shows.

This weblog entry is Copyright © 2003 Robert C. Martin. All rights reserved.

Sponsored Links



Google
  Web Artima.com   

Copyright © 1996-2019 Artima, Inc. All Rights Reserved. - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use