🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4fp1f4$gui@solutions.solon.com>, rdwells@mmm.com says...
:
:Warren Young wrote:
:> Anyway, a relevant quote from the article: "One question I often ask a
:> programmer is, 'How good are you at using the debugger?'  If they're
:> an expert at using the debugger, then I know they're not a very good
:> programmer.  There are things where you have to be expert at using the
:> debugger, such as writing operating systems or device drivers, and
:> those are different cases.  But in general, if you are writing
:> application-level code, then you shouldn't have to use a debugger.  It
:> implies you weren't being very thorough in writing the program in the
:> first place."
:> 
:> I think this is a pretty accurate assessment.  I disagree with his
:> opinion that application programmers shouldn't (ever?) have to use a
:> debugger, but I do agree with his general opinion of expert debugger
:> drivers.
:
:I ran across this idea for the first time several years ago (in an
:article/book by Yourdan, perhaps?), and I'd have to say I mostly agree
:with it.  The way I first heard it phrased was "a debugger is a crutch",
:the idea being that they make it too easy to just slap code together
:with the thought that any bugs will be easy enough to track down later.

Tom DeMarco, in "Controlling Software Projects", takes this a step further. 
He recommends that programmers not be allowed to use compilers. They, too, 
make it too easy to just slap code together with the thought that any bugs 
will be easy enough to track down once the code compiles.
	-- Pete