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I have not read anything more dumb than this in a long time. The article fundamentally says, "Print debugging is not as good as magical tools will be if anyone
by tqwhite 5y ago
I have not read anything more dumb than this in a long time. The article fundamentally says, "Print debugging is not as good as magical tools will be if anyone ever makes them." What's annoying is that he's wrong.
Print debugging is awesome and good. It allows one to explore flow and data. It allows intuitive, multi-pronged examination of a program. It can easily be combined with all the tools the programming language offers. It is incredibly easy to use. It is the same 'UI' everywhere – and it is available – in all languages.
I rarely see something this bad make it onto the main page of Hacker News.
- incrudible 5y ago> The article fundamentally says, "Print debugging is not as good as magical tools will be if anyone ever makes them." ...except he did make some of those magical tools. This blog post is an advertisement for them. > Print debugging is awesome and good. It allows one to explore flow and data. It's the most primitive way to do that, which just happens to be "good enough" in many cases. This hinders the improvement of existing tools. This is also true for debuggers, they have been stagnant for decades. It's probably part of the same trend that pushed UNIX to domination despite being so primitive: It is cheap, portable and already ubiquitous.
- egberts1 5y agoSo bad, we need occasional reminders to re-examine our debugging methodology.
- closeparen 5y agoI think it’s generally pretty sad when people are plodding along with much worse tools than they could feasibly have. I’m not sure “walking should go away” but it is not great when people have to walk for hours to go a few miles, in a universe where bicycles also exist.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- reportgunner 5y agoAlso print debugging adds zero dependencies.