Debugging

When the pressure is on to resolve an elusive software or hardware glitch, what’s needed is a cool head courtesy of a set of rules guaranteed to work on any system, in any circumstance.

Written in a frank but engaging style, this book provides simple, foolproof principles guaranteed to help find any bug quickly. Recognized tech expert and author David Agans changes the way you think about debugging, making those pesky problems suddenly much easier to find and fix.

Agans identifies nine simple, practical rules that are applicable to any software application or hardware system, which can help detect any bug, no matter how tricky or obscure. Illustrating the rules with real-life bug-detection war stories, Debugging shows you how to:

Understand the system: how perceiving the ““roadmap”“ can hasten your journey
Quit thinking and look: when hands-on investigation can’t be avoided
Isolate critical factors: why changing one element at a time can be an essential tool
Keep an audit trail: how keeping a record of the debugging process can win the day

Whether the system or program you’re working on has been designed wrong, built wrong, or used wrong, Debugging helps you think correctly about bugs, so the problems virtually reveal themselves.

Author Biography

David J. Agans is a recognized expert called in to help with tough debugging problems. He currently runs PointSource, a computer systems consultancy. He has worked with industrial control and monitoring systems, integrated circuit design, handheld PCs, videoconferencing, and countless other systems.