Code Craft

Get Thinking

A detailed discussion of these questions can be found in the "Appendix A" section on page 500.

Mull It Over

1. Is it best for faults to be fixed by the original programmer who wrote the code? Or is the programmer who discovered the problem better placed to make a fix?

2. How can you tell when to use a debugger and when to use your brain?

3. You should learn unfamiliar code before you start trying to find and fix faults in it. But the time pressures of the software factory often dictate that you can’t spend any serious time studying and understanding the program you’re repairing. What’s the best way forward?

4. Describe good techniques to avoid memory-leak bugs.

5. When is it justifiable to have a quick stab at finding and fixing a fault, rather than adopting ...