Practical C++ Programming, 2nd Edition

Chapter 17. Debugging and Optimization

Bloody instructions which, being learned, return to plague the inventor.

—Shakespeare, on debugging

The hardest part of a program is not the design and writing, but the debugging phase. It is here that you find out how your program really works (instead of how you think it works).

As programs grow larger and larger, finding bugs becomes more and more difficult. Also, the cost of errors is growing. Software bugs and poor design decisions have cost people billions of dollars the last few years alone. In this chapter we’ll go through techniques you can use to find and eliminate bugs.

Code Reviews

A code review is the process by which the programmer shows her code to her peers and they review it. Code reviews are the most effective way of making sure your code has a minimum number of bugs. Code reviews not only give you better code but also give you better programmers.

Producing an effective code review is an art. It requires good people-skills and management support. It takes time to get a good system in place.

Planning the Review

The first thing to consider when planning a code review is who will be on the team doing the review. Ideally you should try to have three to five people there in addition to the person who wrote the code. Fewer than three and you don’t have enough people to do an effective review. More than five and you can’t have an effective meeting. (In large meetings, people don’t talk, they give speeches.)

At least one senior software ...