> programmers to master the debugging tools of their ecosystem. I've seen countless experienced developers use printf-based debugging and waste hourse debugging something which could've been easily figured out by setting a breakpoint and stepping through your code.
If you're wasting hours with printf-based debugging, I don't think you've 'mastered the debugging tools of the ecosystem'.
There are multiple ways to debug - step debugger tools, printf, logging to a file, etc. Each have their place.
If you're spending hours on any one approach, and perhaps that's the only approach you know, that's a red flag.
If you've spent hours going through printf, logging and step debugging and STILL don't have a good answer... bring in external eyes.
I've found/fixed bugs in a few minutes because of adding some log stuff first, because in those cases, it's the easiest approach. In other cases, running a debugger and setting a couple breakpoints is indeed the easier approach to start with, and I've done that.
Sometimes you find it with the first approach, sometimes you need to try the next approach.
> programmers to master the debugging tools of their ecosystem. I've seen countless experienced developers use printf-based debugging and waste hourse debugging something which could've been easily figured out by setting a breakpoint and stepping through your code.
If you're wasting hours with printf-based debugging, I don't think you've 'mastered the debugging tools of the ecosystem'.
There are multiple ways to debug - step debugger tools, printf, logging to a file, etc. Each have their place.
If you're spending hours on any one approach, and perhaps that's the only approach you know, that's a red flag.
If you've spent hours going through printf, logging and step debugging and STILL don't have a good answer... bring in external eyes.
I've found/fixed bugs in a few minutes because of adding some log stuff first, because in those cases, it's the easiest approach. In other cases, running a debugger and setting a couple breakpoints is indeed the easier approach to start with, and I've done that.
Sometimes you find it with the first approach, sometimes you need to try the next approach.