Quoth Linus
> Apparently, if you follow the arguments, not having a kernel debugger
> leads to various maladies:
> - you crash when something goes wrong, and you fsck and it takes forever
> and you get frustrated.
> - people have given up on Linux kernel programming because it's too hard
> and too time-consuming
> - it takes longer to create new features.
Quoth an unrepentant jdow.
<sigh> Nice men of straw there. I note you properly demolished them.
> It's partly "source vs binary", but it's more than that. It's not that you
> have to look at the sources (of course you have to - and any good debugger
> will make that _easy_). It's that you have to look at the level _above_
> sources. At the meaning of things. Without a debugger, you basically have
> to go the next step: understand what the program does. Not just that
> particular line.
The point is that WITH a debugger you have to take that step as well.
A person without the self discipline to do that is still a child and should
not be in this business. The debugger gives you a better picture of what
is actually happening. If that leverage is considered to be a bad thing
I am surprised and dismayed. A bloody LOT of personal experience
and technological bloody noses suggests it is a very good thing.
> And quite frankly, for most of the real problems (as opposed to the stupid
> bugs - of which there are many, as the latest crap with "truncate()" has
> shown us) a debugger doesn't much help. And the real problems are what I
> worry about. The rest is just details. It will get fixed eventually.
Is somebody saying that a debugger is the key to heaven? I certainly
am not. It is the platform at the top of the ladder that holds your paint
bucket so that you don't have to climb up and down the ladder of your
understanding quite so often. It also beats you over the head with
facts when your head has it wrong. And I must admit that is a painful
hit direct to the ego. {^_-}
> Because I'm a bastard, and proud of it!
And I am an older bitch and proud of it. I've whupped bigger boys than
you.
{^,-} At least I ended on some humor.
(And I even arranged that you only see the list copy reducing
your email inundation by one. Er, why's the list setup without
a reply-to the list?)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 07 2000 - 21:00:28 EST