From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,78a1af350f4cf4b X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Marin D. Condic" Subject: Re: Win2000 has 63,000 'defects' Date: 2000/03/07 Message-ID: <38C529E4.BE1ED0E@quadruscorp.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 594243071 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <38A989B7.2D4D6B56@maths.unine.ch> <2000Feb15.143333.1@eisner> <2000Feb15.155800.1@eisner> <150220001931201946%emery@grebyn.com> <88hbpp$j4i$1@news.btv.ibm.com> <88ma3c$p6a$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <2000Feb21.071938.1@eisner> <38C09E9F.2C752521@earthlink.net> <38C3D03D.FD5D39D1@earthlink.net> Organization: Quadrus Corporation X-Sender: "Marin D. Condic" (Unverified) X-Server-Date: 7 Mar 2000 13:10:26 GMT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Mime-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-03-07T13:10:26+00:00 List-Id: Charles Hixson wrote: > Somehow I tend to feel that both extremes are wrong here. Yes, one should > write the best code that one can. Yes, one should include all reasonable > error checks. (A few kind words for Design By Contract go here.) But one > still needs debugging tools. The less you use them, the friendlier they > need to be. Once upon a time I used to read core dumps, but I haven't > looked at one in the last 10 years. I haven't written assembler in the last > 15+. So to help me much debugger needs to be symbolic, and tied in a useful > way to the source level of the code that it is being applied to. In some environments, debuggers (or what would pass for one) are a way of life. In embedded systems programming you need a debugger or something very similar just to be able to watch the code execute and see if it is behaving as expected. When I build things for a workstation or a PC, often I find I build code with built-in Put_Line statements that are toggleable on/off for similar reasons. I either embed them in "pragma Debug" statements or have some runtime selectable debug switch controlling output. It gives me the ability to trace what the code is doing and look at important data as I am developing the code. This may be why I have not turned on a debugger in a workstation environment in years. I never get to the point where I can't see what the code is doing without a debugger. Of course, when called on to work on other people's code, we have a whole different situation... :-) MDC -- ============================================================= Marin David Condic - Quadrus Corporation - 1.800.555.3393 1015-116 Atlantic Boulevard, Atlantic Beach, FL 32233 http://www.quadruscorp.com/ m c o n d i c @ q u a d r u s c o r p . c o m ***PLEASE REMOVE THE "-NOSPAM" PART OF MY RETURN ADDRESS*** Visit my web site at: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Because that's where they keep the money." -- Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks. =============================================================