Why Programs Fail, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 6 Scientific Debugging

Once we have reproduced and simplified the problem, we must understand how the failure came to be. The process of obtaining a theory that explains some aspect of the universe is known as scientific method. It is also the appropriate process for obtaining problem diagnostics. We introduce the basic techniques for creating and verifying hypotheses, for making experiments, for conducting the process in a systematic fashion, and for making the debugging process explicit.

6.1 HOW TO BECOME A DEBUGGING GURU

Some people are true debugging gurus. They look at the code and point their finger at the screen and tell you:” Did you try X?” You try X and, voilà!, the failure is gone. Such intuition comes from experience with ...