The Frustrations of Debugging

Throughout my coding experience, I have enjoyed most, if not all of the process. The only process that drives me insane is debugging, but it is rewarding, as well. Most of the time my issues can be summed up as I typed something in wrong or I did not think through my entire problem for starting it. While these issues are common, I still wonder how to avoid these pitfalls.

I am writing this because I have spent the past few hours debugging a problem because I used && instead of || in Java. Though this mistake is quite trivial, it still caused me many issues. As I am a new programmer, I still fall victim to the mistake of trying to write my entire program before debugging. I have to actively tell myself that I should not do that. I am far from being labeled even as a “novice programmer”, but that does not stop me from trying. I follow the Duke University seven step method of coding.

The seven step method is as follows:

1. ) Work Example By Hand
2. ) Write Down What You Did
3. ) Find Patterns
4. ) Check By Hand
5. ) Translate To Code
6. ) Run Test Cases
7. ) Debug Failed Test Cases

While this helps immensely, it does not get rid of all my errors, as I need to learn what each line of code…