Debug It!: Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in Your Code

Not for a Developer.

Paul Butcher with a warm and friendly tone shares his wisdom on how to reproduce, diagnose, fix and examine ones in a highly enjoyable book suitable for both new developers and technical leads. I cannot think of a single criticism of the book: it was organized well, put forth good concepts, showed them practically applied, had fun side stories and code examples here illustrate certain points. I found myself nodding in agreement through most of the book and being familiar already with most of the ideas, but the articulation of certain points for example: on when to use branching or not provided me with simple and clear arguments that will be very useful in workplace discussions.

I have read a lot of computer books in my time, and I can honestly say this was one of the best and most useful I have ever read.The book is very well written, and clearly explained. It takes you through the various stages of identifying, tracking down, isolating, and fixing a bug, as well as the crucial stage (that most of us miss) of how to learn from the bug and prevent it, or similar bugs happening again.Even after 30+ years of writing software, I found a lot to learn here. Even the bits that I already knew were worth reading as it gave a fresh and clear perspective on the subject.Perhaps almost as important as the bug fixing section was the section on how to write software that prevents bugs, or at least catches them early in the development cycle. Some of the ideas here were obvious, some weren't, but they all added up to a methodology for making the software tell YOU where the bugs are.Absolutely well recommended. Should be compulsory reading for anyone in the software business, whether an independent developer, or a member of a large team.

If you like Pragmatic Programmer, you will like this book as well. It has good tips for debugging s/w. It also gives a lot of interesting "Lessons Learned" experienced by the author.

A review of this book pretty much writes itself. Its a book about debugging. If you read the blurb and decide that its something you would be interested in reading about - then you will be satisfied. If you read the blurb and decide that it isn't your cup of tea or that you already know enough about the subject, then don't buy it and save yourself some pennies. Reading this book will not give you any surprises or life changing epiphanies, but it will make your debugging technique noticeably more solid.There is very little else to be said - its concise (a very quick read, I breezed through it over a weekend), well written, thoughtful and educational. It formalises many common sense practises and you will probably take something new away from it. If you think that sounds like a good use of your time, then buy it.