Code Craft

Bug Hunting

How do you find bugs? If there was a simple three-step process, we’d all have learned it, and our programs would be perfect by now. As it is, there isn’t, and they aren’t. Let’s try to distill the available bug-hunting wisdom.

Compile-Time Errors

We’ll look at these first, since they are comparatively easy to deal with. When your compiler comes across something unpleasant, it will not normally just complain once, but will take the opportunity to sound off about life in general, spitting out a barrage of subsequent error messages. It’s been told to do this; upon encountering any error, the compiler tries to pick itself back up and carry on parsing away. It rarely manages very well, but with code like yours, who could blame it?

The upshot ...