[Haskell-cafe] Tutorial on Haskell

Michael Vanier mvanier at cs.caltech.edu
Wed Apr 18 00:08:58 EDT 2007


R Hayes wrote:

>
>
>
> On Apr 17, 2007, at 4:46 PM, David Brown wrote:
>
>> R Hayes wrote:
>>
>>> They *enjoy* debugging ...
>>
>>
>> I have to say this is one of the best things I've found for catching
>> bad programmers during interviews, no matter what kind of system it is
>> for.  I learned this the hard way after watching someone who never
>> really understood her program, but just kept thwacking at it with a
>> debugger until it at least partially worked.
>
>
> I've seen this too, but I would not use the word debugging to describe 
> it.  I don't think I agree that enjoying debugging is a sufficient 
> symptom for diagnosing this condition.  There are many people that 
> love the puzzle-box aspect of debugging.  Some of them are very 
> talented developers.
>
> R Hayes
> rfhayes<>@</>reillyhayes.com
>
>>
>> Dave
>>
I agree with the latter sentiment.  I call the "thwacking at it"
approach "random programming" or "shotgun programming", the latter
suggesting that it's like shooting at the problem randomly until it
dies.  I prefer not having to debug, but when I do have to I find it fun
(up to a point).

Mike





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