Why is debugging better in an IDE? [closed]

Answer 1

Debugging in an IDE is invaluable in an environment where error logs and shell access are unavailable, such as a shared host. In that case, an IDE with a remote debugger is the only tool which allows you to do simple things such as view stderr or stdout.

Answer 2

Off the top of my head:

1. Debugging complex objects - Debuggers allow you to step deep into an object's innards. If your object has, say, an array of array of complex objects, print statements will only get you so far.
2. The ability to step past code - Debuggers will also allow you to skip past code you don't want to execute. True, you could do this manually as well, but it's that much more code you have to inject.

Answer 3

Some examples of some abilities that an IDE debugger will give you over trace messages in code:

• View the call stack at any point in time, giving you a context for your current stack frame.
• Step into libraries that you are not able to re-compile for the purposes of adding traces (assuming you have access to the debug symbols)
• Change variable values while the program is running
• Edit and continue - the ability to change code while it is running and immediately see the results of the change
• Be able to watch variables, seeing when they change
• Be able to skip or repeat sections of code, to see how the code will perform. This allows you to test out theoretical changes before making them.
• Examine memory contents in real-time
• Alert you when certain exceptions are thrown, even if they are handled by the application.
• Conditional breakpointing; stopping the application only in exceptional circumstances to allow you to analyse the stack and variables.
• View the thread context in multi-threaded applications, which can be difficult to achieve with tracing (as the traces from different threads will be interleaved in the output).

In summary, print statements are (generally) static and you'll need to re-compile to get additional information if your original statements weren't detailed enough. The IDE removes this static barrier, giving you a dynamic toolkit at your fingertips.

When I first started coding, I couldn't understand what the big deal with debuggers was and I thought I could achieve anything with tracing (granted, that was on unix and the debugger was GDB). But once you learn how to properly use a graphical debugger, you don't want to go back to print statements.

Answer 4

Since you asked for pointers to books... As far as Windows debugging goes, John Robbins has several editions of a good book on Windows debugging:

Debugging Applications for Microsoft .NET and Microsoft Windows

Note that the most recent edition (Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications) is .NET only, so you might want an older one (like in the first link) if you want native code debugging (it covers both .NET and native).

Answer 5

• A debugger can attach to a running process

• Often easier to debug threaded code from a debugger

Answer 6

One reason to use the IDE might be that modern IDEs support more than simple breakpoints. For example, Visual Studio offers the following advanced debugging features:

• define conditional breakpoints (break only if a condition is met, or only on the n-th time the statement at the breakpoint is executed)
• break on an unhandled exception or whenever a (specific) ecxeption is to be thrown
• change variable while debugging
• repeating a piece of code by setting the next line to be executed
• etc.

Also, when using the debugger, you won't have to remove all your print statements once you have finished debugging.