Comments by "xybersurfer" (@xybersurfer) on "I Do Not Use A Debugger | Prime Reacts" video.

the problem with this is that these guys are system level programmers (compilers & kernels). they don't build on-top of large frameworks built by others that may not behave as expected or may contain bugs. that's probably why you think that John Carmack has a different view, and rightly so. the problem with things like printf and alert, is that you have to change your code (and not forget to change it back!) and you have to already know in advanced what you want printed, sometimes especially framework objects have so many fields that you just want to look around at a specific breakpoint (again this is not necessarily something these guys need). i don't think people step through all their code that often. we tend to set only 1 or 2 breakpoints
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@vitalyl1327 vast frameworks and dozens of third party dependencies are clearly not the same thing. i agree with the liability that comes with each third party dependency (JavaScript is a good example). but i'm missing all nuance in your reply, such as reinventing the wheel or code from other employees being similar to third party code. limiting the use of third libraries seems more suitable as a company policy, than interview criteria. there is some irony in all this with how these system level programmers, expect us to use their stuff. how do you feel about candidates that use things like printf and don't know how to use a debugger? i think it's important to use the right tool for the job. if you know more tools, then it's better. sometimes it's printf and sometimes the right tool happens to be the debugger
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@vitalyl1327 i don't think you can expect most programmers to also be compiler writers. but i like your attitude and i would definitely be down for that personally, as i do have experience with BNF and writing parsers. but it would actually have to pay off. i could see how some very specific bugs can be found using a profiler, but i have doubts about finding bugs using static analysis. how would that be different from theorem proving, which is extremely time consuming?
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@vitalyl1327 those tools don't exist in all environments
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@lisinsignage oh. that's terrible. i haven't had that "pleasure" yet. but i have had a similarly terrible bug, where things only worked with the debugger turned on. so it's all too familiar. yes race conditions suck
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