You're just used to using poor tools. Visual Studio has reverse step since 2010, GDB since 2009. I can't think of a single task that's easier with print statem

You're just used to using poor tools. Visual Studio has reverse step since 2010, GDB since 2009. I can't think of a single task that's easier with print statements vs a basic breakpoint debugger. And if you include fancier debugger features like reverse step, code injection and moving the instruction pointer, debuggers win by an order of magnitude. People generally ascribe the rise of Web 2.0 to AJAX, and while that's part of it, what really made Web 2.0 possible was Firebug delivering a useable debugger for Javascript, so complex AJAX apps could actually be created.