Andrew Stellman 👾

🚀 Debugging Secrets: Level Up Your Dev Skills 🚀

Looking back on writing "Head First C#", I've thought a lot about the skills we teach new developers. One skill that most people don't really think about teaching is debugging, but it's a secret to becoming a better developer.

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Jul 25, 2024 at 2:38pmChirr App
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
Debugging is so important because it teaches you how to find and fix errors in your code, making your programs run more smoothly and reliably. It helps you understand how your code works and why it doesn't sometimes.
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
One thing I really wanted to do was give new developers practice with debugging techniques. Developers often don't get a lot of practice with it. Like using breakpoints in Visual Studio. Or understanding stack traces. Or using the debugger to really track down what's going on.
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
These are really important parts of debugging, but they're things most people had to discover on their own. I think they're so much easier to pick up if people are shown how to do them and given practice.
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
Like in Chapter 2, we guide you through a debugging exercise where you identify and fix a bug in a simple console application. Diving into debugging early helps you get really comfortable digging into code and seeing how it runs.
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
This skill is so important for developers, and I think getting into it early on in the learning process helps people learning a new coding language get better so much faster.
Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 25, 2024
Stay tuned for more insights and updates as we get closer to the launch of "Head First C#". Happy coding!
Show threadCelloJul 25, 2024

@andrewstellman @bot

I agree.

Still most people are mind-blown when I show them that you can move the little yellow debugger arrow in Visual Studio to skip or re-execute some lines of code.

While debugging in-code definitely is done less the more experience you gain, it would definitely give you a big boost when starting to get into coding.

Show threadAndrew Stellman 👾Jul 26, 2024

@selmaohneh @bot You're right, it really seems like magic when you first see it.

It's funny about how new developers think it's somehow "cheating" to put WriteLines in to track down problems instead of using the debugger. I actually included an exercise where they learn to do that, just so they know it's a real thing that they can do.