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in reply to Re (tilly) 2: Are debuggers good?
in thread How to debug unknown dynamic code?

tilly,

I'm not sure I read that the same way you may have. I thought tye was sharing some of the tricks learned while working with the language. While it's possible to interpret some moral judgements (to borrow a phrase elsewhere in the thread) from the post, I don't see anything specifically suggesting that you or merlyn are taking positions from ignorance.

Perhaps that's my own judgement peering through.

Regardless, it may be worthwhile to borrow a another concept from the monastic disciplines that inspired this site. Specifically, each travels their own path toward mastery.

I don't use debuggers personally for many of the reasons cited in both camps. However, I do use them when necessary. They can be effective tools, but they should not be the only tool in your problem solving arsenal.

In the end, we make choices by bringing our experience, knowledge, and creativity to bear on the problem at hand. Even bad choices can help illuminate the path.

--f

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Re (tilly) 5: Are debuggers good?
by tilly (Archbishop) on Dec 29, 2000 at 05:42 UTC
    We definitely did read it differently. I was explicitly saying that I don't use the debugger for debugging, and in response to that tye answered saying that he thought that people don't use it because of not wanting to take time to learn to use the debugger. He went on to tell me to use one the next time I need to debug. Despite the fact that I am saying that my not using one is intentional.

    I read that as his not paying attention to what I said (the fact that I am making an intentional choice) and assuming that if I am exposed to the joys of debuggers then I (being a presumably sane human being) will convert.

    That is what I reacted to, and I don't think that I reacted particularly unreasonably to it.

      Oh, sorry about some of that. I was more responding to the thread and the "you"s should have been "one"s as I was addressing all of the readers and not you specifically.

              - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")