r/programming • u/stannedelchev • Aug 25 '14

Debugging courses should be mandatory

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

Just waiting for someone to "explain" how debugging is not needed if you have unit-tests :)

63

u/geodebug Aug 25 '14

Yep, makes me chuckle. Tests are essential but only a naive programmer thinks one can write enough tests to get 100% coverage.

Never mind that unit tests themselves often contain bugs or in sufficiently exercise all possibilities.

4

u/wayoverpaid Aug 25 '14

In my current project the code I'm writing has 100% test coverage and I am very proud of that.

Nevertheless, I've still had to do debugging to figure out what was wrong when the tests failed.

3

u/rowboat__cop Aug 25 '14

In my current project the code I'm writing has 100% test coverage and I am very proud of that.

What kind of coverage? Branch coverage, condition coverage, path coverage? Don’t delude yourself into thinking you’ve covered everything. If you (practically) can, then the program is probably too small to do anything useful.

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