At 04:31 PM 8/9/2007, Alan Gauld wrote: >"Dick Moores" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > > > The only debugging I've done so far is to put in print statements > > where I want to see what's happening. > >Thats OK for basic stuff but for complex things you can wind up >with an awful lot of printing going on! > > > However, I just discovered that my excellent (IMO) Python editor, > > Ulipad, comes with WinPdb, and I'm thinking it's about time > > I learned how to use a debugger. > >Everyone should, they are wonderful tools provided you stay >in control. > > > But first, could I get some reviews here of WinPdb > >Its very good, I think the one in eclipse/PyDev is slightly better >but its close. Its certainly better than either IDLE or Pythonwin. > >The main thing in using debuggers is to avoid the temptation to >just start the program and step all the way through. Learn to use >a combination of break points - to target a suspect function or >control structure and watches - the equivalent of your print >statements. If the debugger supports conditional watches so >much the better, then you only get output when the value >goes to a particular condition. > >Once you've broken the flow at a suspect function and shown >a known error via a watch set another break point at the next >level up then rerun to there (conditional break points are great >too but I don't think pdb does those...) only then do you need >to start stepping line by line until you see the bug occur. > >At that point give up on the debugger and engage your brain! > >BTW If you can get a copy of my book (the paper one - a >library mebbe?) there is a chapter in there about debugging >which includes the use of raw pdb...
Thanks for all the advice and tips, Alan. Unfortunately, I can't find your book around here. Are there any other books/webpages on debugging you or others can recommend? Dick _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
