Debugging

I often still debug via printf. Or, rather, via other code that eventually calls printf. I used to feel guilty about this, embarassed that I did not always use a debugger like gdb. But then I heard some famous programmers say "I debug using printf".

Even better, since I started doing Agile, I spend less and less time debugging. (Conversely, when I work with legacy code, code that doesn't have tests, I spend more time debugging.) 

Now, I have gotten better at using debuggers like gdb over the years. And some of my "add code" debugging cooperates well with debuggers like gdb.

For example, many many years ago another student/lab manager/research assistant/TA (who I think is reading this blog - thanks, Steve) said that he was in the habit of writing data structure printing tools and consistency checks, even if not used in his "production" code - if for no other reason than to be able to call them from a debugger. To this I add that such code is often also useful in automated unit tests. (Diffing taking into account hex addresses...) And also useful if you have to fallback to printf debugging.

What I like about printf debugging is that it often develops assets, code that can be reused.  Both for future debugging, and for other purposes.

Whereas gdb style debugging often does not.  Yes, you can write debug scripts - e.g. I found some useful scripts that can dump STL datastructures in a nice manner, rather than in the unreadable manner that so many debuggers print them.  So-called symbolic, but not very high level.