Maybe it's an unpopular take, but I don't get why so many people keep whining about debugging. If you hate debugging so much, why would you become a programmer in the first place? Wouldn't you be miserable most of your working time?

I find it fascinating watching variables change as I step through code sometimes. Its really trippy when memory gets reassigned and you watch an objects type change right before your eyes. It can fool you into thinking you found a problem when you have not.

Also, valgrind is your friend. Even if you are developing a windows app, if you can compile it in linux and check it against valgrind do it! I have found some much crap that way.

Completely agree. It's always been a treasure hunt for me, with the joy at the end as expected. It's all a journey. And, honestly, debugging someone else's code helps me feel as if I'm leveling up in knowledge of the way others think, and potentially improving my own code.

Debugging is a humiliating task if you're debugging your own code.

Not everyone can handle self humiliation while others enjoy calling their past self a complete dickhead.

Today I had a strange bug from a vendor apear in my mailbox, check the code and all looks get, drop down into the assignments, everything is being set correctly, jump down into the xml generator and the past @C0D4 hard coded a value instead of allowing the assigned values from 2 layers up be dropped in 🤷‍♂️

This has been in production for 6+ months and went through in-house and vendor testing and was still missed.

Past @C0D4 was a dickhead, current @C0D4 fixed it.

Firstly one would not have to debug if one had proper tests in place. The ones that cover all the use-cases. And unit-tests. They would tell you what is wrong.

Secondly, debugging is fun. I for one love it because then I can blame Liferay for being shit. To the client. The same one who demanded it in the first place :) also you learn a lot by stepping into libs

I don't think it's the debugging itself people hate, it's the "debugging and not getting anywhere because the problem mysteriously disappeared while debugging" type scenario.

I mean, those definitely feel good when you solve them, but they're always damn frustrating at the time, no matter how much you like watching variables change!

I didn't become a programmer because I like debugging, but because I like to create art with my fingertips. Since BASIC, I have always been fascinated how my little instructions can make things appear on screen and work a certain way - it feeds my ego and it enriches the world experience around me. What I don't like is when my flow gets interrupted with bugs.

Like many things in life, a lot of things come unexpected, unplanned, even for me, the planner type. Some of us didn't plan on becoming programmers. I for one started liking computers at early age, then I started liking HTML, then BASIC, then Java. College followed because computers seemed to be one thing I was good at and it seemed interesting and I would secure a good future.. graduated, started working..
And so, I didn't join this field to be debugging all the time, I joined it for the sheer beauty of its (working) complexity. People are usually in awe of grand, working systems rather than a big malfunctioning machine.

@CaptainRant

however, you coded lots before becoming a professional. You knew what it was about (at least from the technical point of view). I also didn't plan at all to build softwares in my life.

What I meant is that looking at some rants on here I see some seemingly miserable people because of debugging, not simply frustrated. "Man, I hate debugging" is a different take than "man, this bug is really frustrating me".

Good, thank you. I really love debugging. It's been like 10 years and I still love it.

Debugging challenges you to slow down and think step-by-step, going down to the variables, threads and hardware and how they interact with your code.

That's quite technical.

Most people loathe technical stuff.

And if you pair that with bugs that force you to open a memory view of your objects or - God forbid - the assembly-code, then people will freak out.

I keep observing that pattern in 4/5 devs I encounter.