Debugging by Thinking

xxii How to Read This Book

and a course in data structures and algorithms should be able to understand

and apply the material in this book. Professional programmers should find

new ideas to make them more productive, along with new twists on old

ideas they have been using for years.

The case studies were done in C** and Java because they were the most

popular programming languages in use when this book was written. I refer

to other popular languages, particularly C and Fortran, when they are rele-

vant to a particular topic. Since this book focuses on how to think about

debugging, rather than on specific platforms, almost all of the material is

relevant to all programming languages. If your primary language is not Java

or C**, you should still be able to apply at least 90 percent of the material

in this book.

How to Read This Book

There are several reasons that this book takes a muitidisciplinary approach

to debugging. One reason is that people are unique, and different people

have different preferred modes of learning. Some people need to see things

to learn, others prefer to hear new material, and others have trouble under-

standing unless they can work something with their hands. In a similar way,

some people will relate to some of the lessons of certain disciplines better

than others.

When the material in this book was presented in classes for computer

science graduate students, I found a wide difference in which disciplines the

students found most interesting or helpful. Some absolutely loved the anal-

ogy to detective literature. Others were uninterested. Some were fascinated

by the study of human error. Others had trouble seeing how it was relevant

to them. If you have problems relating to the analogy of one particular dis-

cipline, move on to another one, and come back later to the first one.

An undergraduate student who wants to develop debugging skills

quickly should probably read chapters 1-4, 7-9, 5, 10, 11, and 15, in that

order. Graduate students in computer science should add chapters 12-14

after that.

A professional programmer with years of experience may not feel the

need to read the case studies (chapters 5 and 10). If you aren't sure

whether a chapter will be of use to you, read the review at the end of the

chapter first.

The material in chapters 6 and 12 is more theoretical than the rest of the

book. Chapter 6 gives the rationale for the organization of chapters 7-9.