Why aren't students taught to use a debugger? [closed]

Answer 1

If by students you mean Computer Science students, I think the answer is fairly obvious. The subject matter for courses is generally theory, with the programming language / framework / library there as an aid. The professor can't go very far in depth on a particular tool, since it would take away from time he is teaching networking or systems or whatever. Maybe if there were a course called "Real World Programming" or something like that, they'd cover debuggers, but in general I don't see too much wrong with expecting students to read the language / tool documentation in order to accomplish the coursework.

Answer 2

Wagering a hypothesis based on my experience as a TA and aspiring CS prof:

It would actually confuse the kids who have little to no programming experience more than it would help.

Now first of all: I completely agree that teaching how to use a debugger would be a great thing, but I think the barrier to doing so stems from the greater, systematic problem that software engineering and computer science are not separate majors. Most CS programs will require 2-4 classes where learning to code is the focus. After these, coding ability is required but not the topic of the class.

To my main point: It's very hard to teach something using the guise of "you don't get this now but do it because it'll be useful later." You can try, but I don't think it really works. This as an extension of the idea that people only really learn from doing. Going through the motions but not understanding why is not the same as doing.

I think kids learning to code for the first time aren't going to understand why using a debugger is more effective than inserting print lines. Think about a small to medium sized script you code: would you use the debugger barring odd behavior or some bug you couldn't work out quickly? I wouldn't, seems like it would just slow me down. But, when it comes to maintaining the huge project I work on every day, the debugger is invaluable beyond a doubt. By the time students get to the portion of the curriculum that requires big projects, they're not in a class that focuses on general coding anymore.

And all of this brings me to my awesome idea I think every CS prof should do when teaching how to code: instead of exclusively asking for projects from the kids, every now and then give them a big piece of complex code and ask them to fix the bugs. This would teach them how to use a debugger

Answer 3

Because there is not text book on debugging, period.

In fact, it is very hard to create a teaching situation where get the incentive to use a debuigger. Typical assignments are too simple to really require a debugger. Greg Wilson raised that topic at last year's SUITE workshop, and consensus was it is very hard to get students to use a debugger. You can tell them about debugging, but creating situation where they will actually feel the pain of resorting to the debugger is hard.

Maybe a lecture on game cracking could motive students to step through the game with a debugger? At least, that was why I told myself how to use a debugger as a 12-year old :)

Answer 4

From a practicality standpoint, most likely (due to policy or technical restrictions) you cannot use a debugger on a production application. Not using the debugger as too much of a crutch promotes adding the proper amount of logging to your application.

Answer 5

I wasn't taught to use a debugger in my undergraduate degree, because you cannot use a debugger on a deck of punch cards. Even print statements are a luxury if you have a 15 minute turnaround on "jobs", etcetera.

I'm not saying that people should not be taught to use debuggers. Just that it is also important to learn to debug without this aid, because:

1. it will help you understand your code better if you don't have to rely on a debugger, and
2. there are situations where a sophisticated debugger won't be available.

On the latter point, I can also remember debugging a boot prom on an embedded device using a (rather expensive) logic analyzer to capture what was happening on the address / data lines.

Answer 6

I was taught to use a debugger in college. Not much, late (it should be almost the second thing to teach), but they taught me.

Anyway, it's important to teach to DEBUG, not only to "use a debugger". There are situations where you can't debug with gdb (e.g. try to debug a program running 10 concurrent threads) and you need a different approach, like the old-fashioned printf. I can certainly agree with you that usually one learn and make use of debug techniques much later that the first time you could use them.