I would like to mock propose the following idea: A Debugger License. Like a driver's license, you have to have a certain amount of experience and qualification

I would like to mock propose the following idea: A Debugger License. Like a driver's license, you have to have a certain amount of experience and qualification to operate a debugger. Improper use of your debugger may incur fines and penalties up to the revocation of your license. Licensing should involve operational demonstration of design capacity, testing, and reasoning. After passing the initial phase of licensing, you may operate the debugger under supervision to learn the full spectrum of debugger capabilities (no point using a tool poorly, after all). [/tongue:cheek] I don't really blame people for using debuggers badly though. They're one of the few practical coding tools that time is actually spent on in university classes. In my experience, we were expected to use them to understand the operation of the stack frame and heap in decoding a program especially built around having funny tricks. To throw back to my analogy, it's a bit like teaching a new driver how to do a powerslide before teaching them to obey stop signs.