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Debug It!: Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in Your Code (Pragmatic Programmers) 1st Edition

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Paul Butcher (Author)
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4.5 out of 5 stars 15 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-1934356289
ISBN-10: 193435628X
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Product Details

  • Series: Pragmatic Programmers
  • Paperback: 232 pages
  • Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; 1 edition (November 25, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 193435628X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1934356289
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.7 x 8.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsBook Review: Debug It!
By James L. Johnson on December 23, 2009
Format: Paperback
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to do a technical review of Paul Butcher's new book "Debug It!" and now that it's been published I'm pleased to be able to review the final product. A number of classic programming books, such as Steve Maguire's "Writing Solid Code" or Steve McConnell's "Code Complete", touch on debugging as one aspect of the software development process, but I'm not sure that I've ever seen or read an entire book devoted to the topic of debugging software. In that regard, Paul's new book fills a pretty interesting niche.

Paul breaks the debugging process up into four stages: reproduce, diagnose, fix and reflect. These stages are covered in detail in the first five chapters of the book, and this is the most important section. In the chapter on reproducing bugs, he touches on topics such as how to control the environmental conditions under which bugs manifests themselves, and techniques for reproducing the inputs that trigger the bugs. He also addresses some of the difficulties involved in dealing with especially difficult-to-reproduce nondeterministic bugs. In the chapter on diagnosis, Paul moves on to the process of forming a hypothesis about what's causing the bug and then performing experiments to refine that hypothesis until you settle in on a root cause. There are a lot of useful guidelines here, including my favorite: Only change one thing at a time! The chapter on fixing bugs is relatively short, which reflects the reality that once you understand what's going on it's usually not that difficult to fix the problem. Here the author stresses the importance of adding regression tests, and making sure that you're fixing the root cause and not merely the symptoms.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsMuch more than just debuggers
By Ian Dees on December 8, 2009
Format: Paperback
Too many people think that debugging just means "using the debugger." Like any tool, debuggers can provide valuable information, but the ability to get into the experimental mindset is much more valuable. This book has its priorities in order. It lays down the foundation for the debugging process first, before getting into specific techniques and tools.

Newer developers will get the most out of this book, as it lays the groundwork for solid practices---like finding the minimal reproduction of a bug, or adding logging non-invasively.

Intermediate developers will be able to use the catalogue of techniques like an artist's palette. "Have I tried changing the timing to make this concurrency problem happen sooner? Have I tested this boundary condition?"

Experts will pick up a trick or two as well, such as automatic checking of exception-safety.

The book sprinkles rallying cries throughout: "One Change at a Time," "Suspect Your Own Code First," and so on. These will be useful as reminders even for readers who think they've been there, done that.
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3.0 out of 5 starsNot what I expected.
By W. Doran on October 13, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This book gives a high level overview of the debugging process, and does a fine job of it. But I wanted a far more technical book. Maybe a chapter on advanced gdb, and another on valgrind. I wanted advice on examining core files. I would have liked a chapter debugging multithreaded programs; instead there are three pages with the advice "don't use sleep()". How about using emulators to trace really nasty bugs. This book does not contain the low level details, tricks, and techniques I want to learn.

There are a number of vignettes, fun war stories. I enjoyed reading these.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent book
By Richard Albury on December 9, 2009
Format: Paperback
Debug It! is now on my shelf beside classics like The Pragmatic Programmer and Steve McConnell's Code Complete.

While Debug It! hews to its pragmatic nature, walking the reader through how to approach debugging in a consistent and logical manner, this book also covers how to design for testability (including TDD and code coverage) and how to make a number of tricky debugging scenarios more manageable.

In fact, I recently used a suggestion from the book to flush out a nasty threading bug we were having a hard time reproducing.

Highly recommended!
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5.0 out of 5 starsEffective Problem Solving
By Noah Moerbeek on March 17, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Paul Butcher with a warm and friendly tone shares his wisdom on how to reproduce, diagnose, fix and examine ones in a highly enjoyable book suitable for both new developers and technical leads. I cannot think of a single criticism of the book: it was organized well, put forth good concepts, showed them practically applied, had fun side stories and code examples here illustrate certain points. I found myself nodding in agreement through most of the book and being familiar already with most of the ideas, but the articulation of certain points for example: on when to use branching or not provided me with simple and clear arguments that will be very useful in workplace discussions.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent value for money
By Nick H on December 9, 2009
Format: Paperback
"Debug It!" covers a topic not many programmers and developers spend time thinking about - fixing problems in their own and others code. Prior to this book, learning to debug, fix, and eventually avoid bugs was a process of experience. With Paul's book, programmers and developers can apply well-defined techniques to debugging and increase their productivity.

The book is well written and easily approachable for just about anyone. Especially valuable are the sections on talking with non-technical staff and writing code that can help debug itself. If I have a complaint about the book, it's certainly not with the content. Even though the paper the book is printed on is heavier stock, it feels cheap.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGood book for developers that want to grow.

Nice book for developers that are trying to become better at debugging. Nice tips on logging and trying to analyze the source problem behind the bug.

Published 11 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent, required reading for ANY programmer

I have read a lot of computer books in my time, and I can honestly say this was one of the best and most useful I have ever read. Read more

Published on May 24, 2012 by Yossu
4.0 out of 5 starsAsk Felgall - Book Review

This book is an excellent step by step guide to the entire debugging process. It not only includes all the steps that should be carried out as a part of the debugging process, it... Read more

Published on December 15, 2011 by Stephen Chapman
5.0 out of 5 starsLove the emphasis on logical, disciplined approaches to debugging!

This, coupled with David Agans' "Debugging", is a must-have on a programmer's bookshelf.

Code goes wrong, systems get tetchy, and you need a logical approach to dealing... Read more

Published on September 19, 2011 by James Holmes
4.0 out of 5 starsGood Read

If you like Pragmatic Programmer, you will like this book as well. It has good tips for debugging s/w. Read more

Published on December 27, 2010 by Chris
3.0 out of 5 starsToo Generic for my liking

All in all as a programmer, I found it not bad, but just not good enough.

I interned in Manufacturing for a while and the lessons stated here are what we do in... Read more

Published on March 17, 2010 by Yitch
5.0 out of 5 starsAny library catering to professional programmers must have this

DEBUG IT! FIND, REPAIR, AND PREVENT BUGS IN YOUR CODE is for professional programmers who want to use new tools and approaches to tackling code bugs. Read more

Published on February 20, 2010 by Midwest Book Review
5.0 out of 5 starsHighly recommended

If you write code, you need to know how to figure out what to do when it goes wrong. That's what this book is all about. It's an often overlooked art (or science? Read more

Published on January 25, 2010 by B. Coppin

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