3 ms·

To be frank, I actually find debugger to rarely be useful. When it is useful, it is super useful - but those occasions aren't that numerous, so I can totally be

To be frank, I actually find debugger to rarely be useful. When it is useful, it is super useful - but those occasions aren't that numerous, so I can totally believe that many people may get away without learning how to use it. It feels like 90% of my time in gdb is reading backtraces after segfaults, which I wouldn't really consider to be a use of a debugger. I'm still glad I can use it for the other 10%, but it's just 10%.

forrestthewoods 2y ago
GDB is a dog shit trash debugger. I keep forgetting that Linux and Mac have shit tools. I suppose if the only debugger available to me were GDB I would also prefer printf debugging! The typical modern dev loves to shit on Windows. But Visual Studio (the adult version, not VSCode) is still a best-in-class debugger. Xcode is bloated as hell but did help me last week. Linux has… poor bastards.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Has VSCode, which also runs on Mac. Does Visual Studio do time traveling yet? https://www.replay.io/ https://www.replay.io/ is cross-platform.
  - forrestthewoods 2y ago
    VSCode is an extremely mediocre debugger. It’s better than nothing. But it’s not great. WinDbg has a time traveling debugger. replay.io does not support a single language or environment that I care about.
- seba_dos1 2y ago
  I've spent plenty of time with various debuggers for various platforms and languages, both graphical and CLI-based, and it really doesn't matter to what I said. A debugger may be someone's preferred tool anyway, sure, but the cases where it's actually non-trivially improving workflow are relatively rare. Most of the time it just makes you a bit faster, if at all.
  - forrestthewoods 2y ago
    I could not possibly disagree more strongly. But hey you do you.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  What is wrong with JetBrains' CLion? It is a cross-platform C & C++ IDE. I have used it on Linux, and the GUI-based debugger is so much easier to use compared to GDB from the command line. Also: Do also say that LLDB is a "dog shit trash debugger"?

forrestthewoods 2y ago

GDB is a dog shit trash debugger. I keep forgetting that Linux and Mac have shit tools. I suppose if the only debugger available to me were GDB I would also prefer printf debugging! The typical modern dev loves to shit on Windows. But Visual Studio (the adult version, not VSCode) is still a best-in-class debugger. Xcode is bloated as hell but did help me last week. Linux has… poor bastards.

fragmede 2y ago
Has VSCode, which also runs on Mac. Does Visual Studio do time traveling yet? https://www.replay.io/ https://www.replay.io/ is cross-platform.
- forrestthewoods 2y ago
  VSCode is an extremely mediocre debugger. It’s better than nothing. But it’s not great. WinDbg has a time traveling debugger. replay.io does not support a single language or environment that I care about.
seba_dos1 2y ago
I've spent plenty of time with various debuggers for various platforms and languages, both graphical and CLI-based, and it really doesn't matter to what I said. A debugger may be someone's preferred tool anyway, sure, but the cases where it's actually non-trivially improving workflow are relatively rare. Most of the time it just makes you a bit faster, if at all.
- forrestthewoods 2y ago
  I could not possibly disagree more strongly. But hey you do you.
throwaway2037 2y ago
What is wrong with JetBrains' CLion? It is a cross-platform C & C++ IDE. I have used it on Linux, and the GUI-based debugger is so much easier to use compared to GDB from the command line. Also: Do also say that LLDB is a "dog shit trash debugger"?