Every process seems to be powered by tech today, and the majority of people who rely on it do not understand the challenges that the developers of various techs face. One of the biggest problems that software developers have to go through is debugging.
Debugging is the process of identifying and removing code errors, abnormalities or bugs in a computer program. It is a multistep testing process that is paramount in any software development cycle. It starts from the time the code is written until the completion of the software product. Without continuous debugging, it will be impossible to debug a program with thousands of lines of code.
Bugs are errors that software developers make as they write the code. Bugs have been treated as if they sneak in while the programmer is not aware but that is not the case because they are a result of the programmer making a mistake. Coding can be a very intensive and complex process, and mistakes are bound to happen along the way. So, is it possible to avoid mistakes during the process of coding?
How to avoid debugging
Since bugs are the errors done by the programmer in the process of writing the code, it means that debugging is largely avoidable if programmers work carefully. How does this happen? If you consider the fact that developers spend 95% of their time designing, testing, debugging and refactoring and only 5% of their time writing new code, it shows that something is wrong somewhere that needs to be fixed. The problem is that programmers are not patient and they want to finish the entire program in one sitting.
In the end, they create a lot of defects in the code that cause infection which propagates to the extent of causing failure of the entire tech development.
So, how do you caution yourself against this habit?
Start small and keep it working
Writing a few lines of code and then ensuring that it runs ok before moving forward is important for all programmers. When working with a few lines of code at a time, you will know where to look for the problem and what went wrong for the purpose of fixing them before they become bugs. When you add small pieces of code at a time, a problem will always be with the new code that you just added, and you can fix them easily. Without this, errors might end up becoming deeply rooted bugs that are very hard to remove yet causes frequent software crashes when it is in use. It is when this happens that you will start running up and down looking for good debugging software.
Write a simple, readable and debuggable code
A simple code is the one that you understand without any form of strain. Readable code is the one that clearly expresses your intentions while a debuggable code is a code that is structured and easy to follow. Complicated codes are prone to errors and hard to debug.
Write tests
A unit is the smallest part of a code that can be tested and unit tests significantly help to prevent bugs and also in debugging. You should also learn to use a debugger like WinDbg, GDB, IDA Pro and OllyDbg among others.
Developing a software is usually not an easy process because it is time-consuming. The process of software development would have been faster if there were no errors, bugs and debugging and it is only when a programmer is patient and careful that debugging can be prevented and may be avoided.
