Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques: A Platform-Agnostic Approach

Appendix B. Useful Tools for Programmers

There are several tools that make programming less error prone and improve the overall ability of a programmer. This appendix covers some of the most valuable tools—the ones most professional developers will use on a daily basis. These tools are general enough that they aren’t exclusively for game programmers, so any programmer can benefit from learning to use them.

Debugger

Novice programmers often try to debug problems in their code with text output statements, using something like printf in C or cout in C++. For a console application, this might make a lot of sense. If a user is required to type “yes” or “no” and instead enters “maybe,” it’s completely appropriate to have a text error message. But ...