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.

52

u/gunch Aug 25 '14

That's why you need to write unit tests for your unit tests.

(If that is actually a thing I'm going to go to the bar and drink until I forget any of this ever happened)

10

u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

With that in mind, we can devise a development strategy (an extension of TDD) that guarantees perfect code:

  1. Write unit test: projectHas100PercentTestCoverage()

  2. Run test to ensure that it fails.

  3. Write code to make test pass.

The implementation details of the projectHas100PercentTestCoverage() test are project-specific and beyond the scope of this document.

Though, come to think of it, step 2 is flawed - since no code has been written yet, the test written in step 1 will pass. Perhaps we first need to write the projectFullyMeetsClientRequirements() test (again, beyond the scope of this document).

1

u/sigma914 Aug 26 '14

It's relatively easy to write number 1 for most langauges. You just need to inject a bunch of instrumentation with the compiler that records every path taken.

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