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John Robbins

Debugging Applications (DV-MPS Programming)

by John Robbins (Author)

4.7 19 ratings

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Amid a booming market for third-party software debugging tools -- evidence that bugs and defects are a pernicious fact of everyday programming life -- there exists no single guidebook that adequately addresses the topic of debugging as a programming discipline. But with the upcoming publication of ""Debugging Microsoft Windows Applications,"" developers finally get the practical, Windows-focused reference they need for finding and correcting costly coding errors. The book takes a holistic approach to debugging -- redefining ""bugs"" not just in terms of crashes and high-profile calamities, but including everything from user interface problems and performance issues to incomprehensible product manuals.

The first section introduces the ""Zen of Debugging, "" outlining what developers need to know both before and during product development Section two demonstrates how to maximize the vastly under-utilized built-in debugging capabilities in the Visual Studio ""RM"" product family. The last section of the book steps readers through specific debugging situations and their solutions, covering such topics as multithreaded debugging, crash handlers, and automated regression testing. Throughout, the book focuses on practical, tested techniques -- ready for work -- in the tradition of the award-winning Microsoft Press ""RM"" Best Practices series.

ISBN-10

0735608865
ISBN-13

978-0735608863
Publisher

Microsoft Press
Publication date

February 26, 2000
Language

English
Dimensions

7.35 x 1.37 x 9.23 inches
Print length

250 pages
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Microsoft Press (February 26, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 250 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735608865
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735608863
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.3 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.35 x 1.37 x 9.23 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,413,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #134 in Computer Programming Debugging
- #1,451 in Computer Operating Systems (Books)
- #1,748 in Microsoft OS Guides

Customer Reviews:
4.7 19 ratings

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Elijah D

Out of Print !(Huge Shame)

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2002

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This book is the final word on windows debugging. Not surprising since it comes from one of the authors of the award winning software: "Bounds Checker"
I really enjoyed the chapter on x86 assembly. It covers what needs to be known to read through assembly code when the debugger tosses it at you.
Trying to list all the good stuff in the book will take more time than I can devote right now. What I don't understand is why the book is now out of print. I'm sure some people out there still want to stick to native code and these people deserve to have this book. I'm happy I got mine before it went under.

4 people found this helpful

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EJ Bartelds

Good, but could be even better

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2000

When I first heard John Robbins was writing a book on Win32 debugging, I was delighted. I've been a fan of his MSJ Bugslayer articles since the beginning, and John's debugging knowledge, displayed in those articles, has helped me tremendously.
However, for someone who has read all his MSJ work, this book is a bit of a disappointment. The reason is that the second part of the book is a collection of his (slightly-rewritten) MSJ articles, with almost no new content added as far as I can see.
The first part of the book, however, is worth every dollar, as other reviewers have already mentioned, even though I was missing coverage of the WinDbg debugger, and MS tools such as userdump. Maybe in a second edition?
To summarize, I suspect this book to be a 5-star for anyone who is fairly new to debugging and has not read John's MSJ columns. For others, who have been exposed to his columns, and have some experience, I'd rate this book 3-stars.

16 people found this helpful

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Osiris Pedroso

Do you aspire to be a serious developer? If so, read this bk

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2000

John Robbins did a great job on this book. I was very impressed both on the depth and breadth of the issues treated.
At first, I though on skipping the chapter on Visual Basic debugging, since I am strictly a VC++ developer, but I am glad I did not. Even that chapter gave me insights that I can use on my day to day, for example, when he runs the VB compiler while in the debugger and is able to see how VB uses the C compiler's code generation (second pass).
Some great insights and lots of good example on how to resolve problems and how to use all the capabilities of the debugger to ones best advantage.
It will teach you what to do when the debugger gets you to a source line that before that line, everything is working properly, after that line the world has turned upside down. It will teach you enough X86 assembly to make you dangerous and be able to read between the (source) lines in the process. Even if you thought you knew it already.
Could it be improved ? Yes, can't it always ? Coverage on tracking memory leaks could be expanded, for example, to cover MFC's shortcomings when reporting them, but this book is a close to perfection as I have seen them.
And it is a great read too. His style is easy to follow, even though some of the subjects are deep and complex, but John transfers the knowledge so easily, it is amazing.
Once I completed my first read, I really felt like I had just finished listening to a very good rendition of a Beethoven or Mozart simphony.
Every developer that aspire to be a serious developer should read it and reread it.
And thank you, John Robbins. I will be buying every book you write.

19 people found this helpful

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developer

must have for a "real" developer

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2002

You deliver a product. Soon an e-mail arrives - its crashed. "The register are .., the stack (and values) is .., the process address space is partitioned as follows (with values) .., the OS is ...". Now get real !! This book will give you the full info on how to get all that info from a crash (ie. to **write your own "core" dump**), and the user can send it to you - then you can hopefully backtrack to its origin. It gives you all the necessary info on assembly language (the book is worth getting just for this), but also the deep knowledge needed to track down almost any bugs - this is because it **actually shows you how to write a debugger**, and this imparts to you the "deep" info you need to know. Normal debugger usage is covered, but I regard this as trivial compared to the rest of the book. Compared to McKay's book, it is much deeper and goes into the "dirty stuff" that a "real" application programmer would need. An earlier review stated "why would anyone want to know how debuggers work"; all I can say is that anyone who thinks like this should not get this book (and should not be coding either). Oh yes, I am sorry to say I am also not going to give any petty criticism about something missing off the CD. But I will say that .COD files should have been mentioned. You can get these by setting the listing option on the VC++ project/options/C++ tab to source/assembly/machine_code - these are indispensable (with or without a .PDB - look at them and you will know why), but this is forgivable considering how good this book is. Get McKays book as well - it is still a very good book but the focus is at a higher level.

4 people found this helpful

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J H Murphy

Excellent Choice Among Windows Debugging Books

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2002

I have four debugging books on the shelf above my monitor. This is the one I refer to most. I have over 30 years programming experience, about ten in C and C++, and I find that this book is an excellent resource. I still haven't read it cover to cover, and the CD is still sealed - much of it is on MSDN in some form anyway - so some of the other review complaints may have merit. Notwithstanding all of those, this is an excellent book, and you will probably get a good return on your investment in time and money.
For the record, the other three books are:
- Windows 2000 Kernel Debugging - may be more useful for device driver debugging
- Debugging Windows Programs - not bad, perhaps a little less intense than this book
- Debugging C++ - This is probably a little light for me, but I have a lot of background in debugging from other platforms. If you find the John Robbins book too challenging, this may be a good start
And this last brings up the only possible shortcoming of this book. I think the reader needs a certain level of knowledge, experience, and commitment to being a professional Windows programmer to get the most value from it. If you have these qualities, this book is invaluable. If not, you may find it very useful as you get more experience. Excellent choice in any event.

7 people found this helpful

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