Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 9:10 AM
Brian Kernighan on Debugging
I saw this in an email from John Mason in PSS today:
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan
7 comments
on this post
John:
Oh come on Chris. You can't have gone your whole career and never seen that quote before!? It's a classic!
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 9:26 AM
Randy:
Not too surprising, if you think about it. I mean it took me 3 months to write a small book but somewhere between 6-9 months to edit/polish it.
Of course that could just tell me something about my writing abilities, but I code better than I write, so it's OK!
Of course that could just tell me something about my writing abilities, but I code better than I write, so it's OK!
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 9:55 AM
Rod Paddock:
Words to live by!!!!!!
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 9:56 AM
Martin Plante:
My version would be:
"Debugging someone else's code is twice as hard as writing the code yourself. Therefore, if you let someone else code it, make sure you're twice as smart as him."
"Debugging someone else's code is twice as hard as writing the code yourself. Therefore, if you let someone else code it, make sure you're twice as smart as him."
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 10:40 AM
Undecided voter.:
Bush has screwed Eye-raq. Now we need someone twice as smart to come in and fire-fight. And that's Kerry! Thanks BWK. I was an undecided voter before I read this.
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 1:02 PM
Paul Downey:
Debugging is like farting - it's not so bad when it's your own code.
Monday, Oct 4, 2004, 2:02 PM
Keith Patrick:
What exactly is he intending "clever" to be? Is he intending "clever" to ingeniously elegant (which, IMO, should be inherently simple) or just complex or elaborate?
I find recursive algorithms to be remarkably simple in structure yet also difficult to debug if not in the right mindset (I kinda have to flick a switch to go from procedural thinking to recursive), but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, as the code can be much simpler in the long run.
I find recursive algorithms to be remarkably simple in structure yet also difficult to debug if not in the right mindset (I kinda have to flick a switch to go from procedural thinking to recursive), but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, as the code can be much simpler in the long run.
Tuesday, Oct 5, 2004, 9:08 AM
