Debugging Quotes

• If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Funny, Bugs, Computer

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• Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.

  Brian Kernighan

  Inspirational, Funny, Smart

  93 Copy quote

• Programming allows you to think about thinking, and while debugging you learn learning.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Thinking, Programming

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• When debugging, novices insert corrective code; experts remove defective code.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Quality, Experts, Novices

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• The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

  Brian Kernighan

  Tools, Programming, Print

  "Unix for Beginners". Paper by Brian Kernighan, 1979.

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• Testing proves a programmer’s failure. Debugging is the programmer’s vindication.

  Boris Beizer

  Testing, Prove, Programmers

  Boris Beizer (1990). “Software Testing Techniques”, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

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• As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

  Maurice Wilkes

  Mistake, Technology, Coders

  "The Design and Use of the EDSAC". Lecture delivered at the Digital Computer Museum, September 23, 1979.

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• The wages of sin is debugging.

  Ron Jeffries

  Wages, Sin

  13 Copy quote

• There has never been an unexpectedly short debugging period in the history of computers.

  Steven Levy

  Bugs, Computer, Programming

  Steven Levy (2010). “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - 25th Anniversary Edition”, p.332, "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

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• If you're as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?

  Brian Kernighan

  Clever, Writing, Programming

  Brian W. Kernighan, P. J. Plauger (1978). “The Elements of Programming Style”, Computing McGraw-Hill

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• System debugging, like astronomy, has always been done chiefly at night.

  Fred Brooks

  Night, Done, Astronomy

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• To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.

  Paul R. Ehrlich

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

  76 Copy quote

• Another effective [debugging] technique is to explain your code to someone else. This will often cause you to explain the bug to yourself. Sometimes it takes no more than a few sentences, followed by an embarrassed "Never mind, I see what's wrong. Sorry to bother you." This works remarkably well; you can even use non-programmers as listeners. One university computer center kept a teddy bear near the help desk. Students with mysterious bugs were required to explain them to the bear before they could speak to a human counselor.

  Brian Kernighan

  Sorry, Learning, Mind

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• I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.

  Maurice Wilkes

  Mistake, Coders, Funny Computer

  Lecture titled "The Design and Use of the EDSAC" delivered by Maurice Wilkes at the Digital Computer Museum, tcm.computerhistory.org. September 23, 1979.

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• Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

  Rick Cook

  Winning, Technology, Race

  "The Wizardry Compiled". Book by Rick Cook, 1989.

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Science, Roots, Evil

  Donald Ervin Knuth (1986). “TEX: The Program”, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• Each new user of a new system uncovers a new class of bugs.

  Brian Kernighan

  Class, Bugs, Users

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• The process of debugging, going an correcting the program and then looking at the behavior, and then correcting it again, and finally iteratively getting it to a working program, is in fact, very close to learning about learning.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Facts, Behavior, Program

  Big Think Interview, bigthink.com. December 4, 2009.

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• The three most important aspects of debugging and real estate are the same: Location, Location, and Location.

  Richard E. Pattis

  Real, Learning, Important

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• The most frequent complaint is that it's hard. True. it's a hard game to win Also, many people ask me how to use the secret debugging commands, apparently under the impression that I'll tell them.

  Graham Nelson

  Winning, Games, People

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• System debugging has always been a graveyard-shift occupation, like astronomy.

  Fred Brooks

  Occupation, Astronomy, Graveyard

  18 Copy quote

• The hardest part of the software task is arriving at a complete and consistent specification, and much of the essence of building a program is in fact the debugging of the specification.

  Fred Brooks

  Learning, Essence, Arriving

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• If you want more effective programmers, you will discover that they should not waste their time debugging, they should not introduce the bugs to start with.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Want, Waste, Bugs

  "The Humble Programmer". Edsger Dijkstra's ACM Turing Award lecture, "Communications of the ACM", Volume 15, No. 10, www.cs.utexas.edu. October 1972.

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• We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil.

  Donald Knuth

  Learning, Roots, Evil

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• Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming.

  Tony Hoare

  Roots, Evil, Simplicity

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