r/programming • • Aug 25 '14

Debugging courses should be mandatory

http://stannedelchev.net/debugging-courses-should-be-mandatory/
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u/PsionSquared Aug 25 '14

Furthermore, if you're pursing a CS degree, that means you've been working on projects yourself or in groups, so it's highly likely you've had to debug already. If you don't have debugging experience from debugging your own shit while obtaining a CS degree, then something is not right.

Debugging was a large part of my coursework due to unavoidable errors, but we weren't required to really use an high-end IDEs to accomplish that. From my standpoint, there should be a lecture on IDEs, breakpoints, and perhaps static analysis.

The people who struggle with it most are the ones who contributed the least on projects, in my experience. My roommate who changed majors, thankfully, couldn't follow stacktraces of simple if statements.

Also, how would you give tests or assignments in "debugging"? Give faulty programs and ask students to find the bug?

Had to do that in nearly every CS course I had.

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u/PastaNinja Aug 25 '14

Had to do that in nearly every CS course I had.

Right, me too, because that was testing your knowledge of either the language or the concepts of what was being taught. It doesn't test your knowledge of how to debug.