What Debuggers do you use?

[Which Distance]

Hey everyone!
Was curious what debuggers people here use (or whether they use one at all) and why they use them?

[seeplus]

VS2019 - has in-built debugger. Use it all the time to check my production code is working as expected. Just because a C++ program seems to work, doesn't mean it works properly.

[jonnin]

visual's built in, and I also am willing to add print (or file write) statements to see what went wrong when it is running, esp. when you can't reproduce the error easily and need to run the code for a 'while' before it pops up.

[keskiverto]

gdb - The GNU Debugger

[AbstractionAnon]

It really depends on what IDE you use. The debugger built in to Visual Studio is very good.

[MikeyBoy]

Whatever debugger is built into the IDE I use. Which, 99% of the time, is Visusal Studio.

As for why... well, because it's much more convenient to use one as part of your existing IDE, than to fire up something different.

[Ganado]

I've used Visual Studio's debugger because I find its GUI easy to use (setting break points, variable watch list, setting different values at runtime).

Would like to use gdb, but I find it way too tedious to use. Plus, gdb has crashed when I've tried to set particular breakpoints. I'm most certainly not doing it efficiently, but I also think it shouldn't crash. Wonder if anyone has a particular guide or technique.

[Which Distance]

Additional question, does anyone here like using a debugger?

[Repeater]

I certainly like it a lot, lot more than trying to figure out what went wrong without a debugger.

[AbstractionAnon]

Good debugging skills vastly simplify troubleshooting a program.
Important things to know:
- Best place to set a breakpoint for each particular problem.
- How to use conditional breakpoints
- How to set a memory access breakpoint

[Which Distance]

Completely agree that debuggers are powerful and using them well is a skill, but I never really enjoy using them. I guess maybe a better question is, do people think that they use a debugger less frequently than they'd optimally like to?

[Albatross]

I use gdb through its CLI. It takes some learning to become competent with it, but it's actually not that bad of a user experience IMO. I mostly learned by skimming through reading the GNU project's manuals. And yes, it's significantly more pleasant than figuring out what went wrong without a debugger.

There's a project called rr whose purpose is to record the execution of programs for later bi-directional (!) playback and analysis in gdb. I've used it a few times, and the rest of you might find it useful.
https://rr-project.org/

-Albatross

[Repeater]

If you're using a Linux or some other such with gdb right there waiting for you, the speed with which you can find some bugs using the debugger at the CLI is fantastic:

https://www.cplusplus.com/articles/iwTbqMoL/

[jonnin]

no, its not 'fun' esp if the busted code is not your own. Its a tool. Using a shovel to dig a ditch isnt fun either, but its a lot better than if you did not have it.

[helios]

Personally, I kind of enjoy debugging code. It can be made fun if you think of it like a puzzle that you have to solve. Sometimes it can get pretty hairy and it's frustrating when you can't figure something out, but when you finally do you get that rush of dopamine and it's great.

[keskiverto]

"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 W. Kernighan

Therefore, successfully debugging your own code implies self-development, which is gratifying?