Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs.
System debugging has always been a graveyard-shift occupation, like astronomy.
There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.
I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.
The wages of sin is debugging.
If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.
Building technical systems involves a lot of hard work and specialized knowledge: languages and protocols, coding and debugging, testing and refactoring.
Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.
If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?
Testing proves a programmer’s failure. Debugging is the programmer’s vindication.
The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.
The process of debugging, going an correcting the program and then looking at the behavior, and then correcting it again, and finally iteratively getting it to a working program, is in fact, very close to learning about learning.
System debugging, like astronomy, has always been done chiefly at night.
Programming allows you to think about thinking, and while debugging you learn learning.
Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging.
The most frequent complaint is that it's hard. True. it's a hard game to win Also, many people ask me how to use the secret debugging commands, apparently under the impression that I'll tell them.
If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start with.
Science requires a society because even people who are trying to be good thinkers love their own thoughts and theories - much of the debugging has to be done by others.
