Tips on Debugging from the Best of the Best of Software Engineers 

Today was one of the most important days of my whole software engineering career and maybe even life. For the first time in my life, I felt that someone helped me put a name on an issue I had been experiencing for a long time at work... for years and years actually. It's rare in life to find a moment when someone will actually get you that well and for that I am so grateful. I hope this is the beginning of more and more situations when people actually understand me. Expect a barrage of blog posts. Because my life has changed, and everything in my life has changed for the better 

Debugging tips from the pros 

• Take a step back 

Okay then. 

Thanks. What's next?

1. Note down the steps for replication
2. Replicate the problem
3. Write a test that fails - once you know it passes you know the bug is fixed
4. So the first part involves identifying the bug and the scope of the bug
5. The second part is this: 
6. Look at the code before you start writing anything 
7. Read it through - take the time to understand the code 
8. Get a reasonable idea of what's going on 

And then:

• You identify the fix
• Not performing the fix yet 
• Identifying the scope of the fix
• What it might touch or break
• Any other bits