In a Nutshell

I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

Maurice Wilkes

Like death and taxes, no matter how hard we try to avoid them, bugs happen. Sure, you might be able to mitigate the effects of the first two by using every sort of antiwrinkle cream available and manipulating your money in cunning ways, but if you don’t know how to deal with faults when they stare you in the face, your code is doomed.

Debugging is a skill you develop. It doesn’t rely on guesswork, but on methodical detection and thoughtful repair.

Good programmers . . .

Bad programmers . . .

  • Don’t cultivate bugs; they write code carefully to prevent introducing them ...

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