> For something that takes up the overwhelming bulk of a developer's time...
It isn't the bulk of my time.
Most of my time is spent figuring out what to do.
Once I have decided that, telling the computer is usually straightforward.
> Programmers don't often talk about debugging techniques in my experience.
No they don't, but look at it this way: Bugs are mistakes, and nobody wants to be told they're making too many mistakes. Anyone who discovers some amazing debugging technique will struggle to share it with anyone else for a lot of reasons, and this is one.
> It may be that nobody has a method superior to print debugging.
Print debugging always works. Getting "a debugger" to work isn't always easy, and if you aren't already comfortable using the debugger to track down the kind of bug you're facing, you will find it very difficult to find the bug and cure it faster than with print debugging. And since people don't tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, debuggers tend to have a very limited utility in those few mistakes made frequently.
My experience is that mistakes like that are the fault of some kind of fundamental misunderstanding, and rather than spend time to learn all of the different fundamental misunderstandings that the debugger was designed to work around, time is better spent simply correcting your misunderstandings.
It isn't the bulk of my time.
Most of my time is spent figuring out what to do.
Once I have decided that, telling the computer is usually straightforward.
> Programmers don't often talk about debugging techniques in my experience.
No they don't, but look at it this way: Bugs are mistakes, and nobody wants to be told they're making too many mistakes. Anyone who discovers some amazing debugging technique will struggle to share it with anyone else for a lot of reasons, and this is one.
> It may be that nobody has a method superior to print debugging.
Print debugging always works. Getting "a debugger" to work isn't always easy, and if you aren't already comfortable using the debugger to track down the kind of bug you're facing, you will find it very difficult to find the bug and cure it faster than with print debugging. And since people don't tend to make the same mistakes over and over again, debuggers tend to have a very limited utility in those few mistakes made frequently.
My experience is that mistakes like that are the fault of some kind of fundamental misunderstanding, and rather than spend time to learn all of the different fundamental misunderstandings that the debugger was designed to work around, time is better spent simply correcting your misunderstandings.