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Something I read forever ago and can't find a link for: Keep a debugging journal. Take notes on every step you take and its results. It's easy to go in circles
by spiffytech 4y ago
Something I read forever ago and can't find a link for:
Keep a debugging journal. Take notes on every step you take and its results. It's easy to go in circles because you forget what you tried or forgot some detail of its outcome. Seeing a summary of what you already know helps you rule out possibilities and inspires new ones.
I often forget to do this or feel like "I can handle this bug without a crutch". Yet every time I actually journal the process it's helpful.
- greenyoda 4y agoA journal also makes it much faster to jump back into a productive state after that inevitable interruption. (That interruption could be a meeting, or an emergency that forces you to drop everything and work on a higher-priority issue for several days.) You can also refer back to your journal to remind yourself how you fixed that similar problem months ago. Of course, a journal doesn't have to be limited to debugging. It's useful for development too.
- shreyshnaccount 4y agothere has to be a way to make this more streamlined and run experiments automatically, right?
- HeyLaughingBoy 4y agoI find this useful also, especially with new technology where I may not already have a good mental model of how it works. I generally use Notepad++ and it's often just a set of notes about the value of important variables in certain files @ a particular line of code or at a particular time. I find that seeing that big picture at a glance can often give me immediate insight into what's happening. Something you can't always see when you're focused on a few lines of code in a method.