Debuggers don't have to halt execution on hitting a breakpoint. They can do other things, like print the contents of memory, letting the host system handle the

Debuggers don't have to halt execution on hitting a breakpoint. They can do other things, like print the contents of memory, letting the host system handle the formatting. They're actually usually better for timing-sensitive prints than printf debugging. That said, most people don't know this is possible (the learning curve issue you mentioned), even though it's an important part of how to use debuggers!