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  1. #1
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    [RESOLVED] What debuggers do you use?

    What debuggers and useful plug-ins for Visual Studio can you recommend? (For Windows)

  2. #2
    VictorN's Avatar
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    What is wrong with the standard VS debugger?
    Victor Nijegorodov

  3. #3
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    Quote Originally Posted by VictorN View Post
    What is wrong with the standard VS debugger?

    I have no complaints about the standard debugger. I'm just looking for convenient enhancements to work more efficiently.

  4. #4
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    Visual Studio includes one of the best debuggers that I've tried.
    I would never try to replace the built-in debugger.

    Regarding plugins, I've use VisualAssist in the past, and now I'm using Resharper for C++.
    Marc Gregoire - NuonSoft (http://www.nuonsoft.com)
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  5. #5
    2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    useful plug-ins for Visual Studio
    Test Platform
    Spell Checker
    Go To Definition
    Power Tools
    Black Space
    Quick Fixes
    Editor Guidelines
    Visual Assist

    If you go to Tools/Extensions/OnLine you can see what is available.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  6. #6
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    Quote Originally Posted by 2kaud View Post
    Test Platform
    Spell Checker
    Go To Definition
    Power Tools
    Black Space
    Quick Fixes
    Editor Guidelines
    Visual Assist

    If you go to Tools/Extensions/OnLine you can see what is available.
    Thank you, I have reviewed some items from this list. Editor Guidelines looks great, I try to use!

  7. #7
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    BuildVision is another nice plugin to give a nicer overview of a build process.
    Marc Gregoire - NuonSoft (http://www.nuonsoft.com)
    My Blog
    Wallpaper Cycler 3.5.0.97

    Author of Professional C++, 4th Edition by Wiley/Wrox (includes C++17 features)
    ISBN: 978-1-119-42130-6
    [ http://www.facebook.com/professionalcpp ]

  8. #8
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    There are a huge number of plug-ins for Visual Studio. It all depends on what technology stack you use. What data you work with.
    I tried the plugin for GitHub, very convenient. Sometimes I use Regex Tester (for working with regular expressions), Deleaker (debugger for VisualStudio)

  9. #9
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    Quote Originally Posted by Arjay View Post
    Sorry, that attitude is an academic fantasy. In a complex system with real world constraints like time and budget, no one writes bug free code. Perhaps this is why many university students haven't a clue about debugging when they graduate.
    Of course, when you do have a bug having a good debugger is paramount, but I still think focus too often is on finding bugs rather than on preventing them.

    Vocational training isn't the main objective of universities. Focus is more on basic stuff that will last a lifetime and less on today's fads. But even so, graduates today have much better practical programming skills than in the past and that includes debugging. At least that's my impression.

    Academic fantasy or not, also many companies are very concerned with high code quality and I've never heard debuggers being mentioned as a key strategic tool to achieve it. On the contrary, when programmers spend more time debugging than coding it's a problem because it affects earnings negatively. Therefore these companies go to great lengths not to allow what you call "real world constraints" to have a negative impact on code quality.

    With that I rest my case.
    Last edited by wolle; January 27th, 2019 at 11:09 PM.

  10. #10
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    I agree with some of the statements. If the logic of the code is bad, no debugger will fix this.
    It’s quite a natural thing to make mistakes. I do not think that most programmers write code without errors, bugs, typos and other things.
    I consider debuggers and other add-ons as coding assistants. I do not think this is a waste of time.

  11. #11
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    As others have said, it's impossible to write bug-free code, but there are tools to help you.
    One such tool is called unit-tests. You should write unit-tests to cover every line of code you've written, and to test all kinds of border conditions on input data.
    Marc Gregoire - NuonSoft (http://www.nuonsoft.com)
    My Blog
    Wallpaper Cycler 3.5.0.97

    Author of Professional C++, 4th Edition by Wiley/Wrox (includes C++17 features)
    ISBN: 978-1-119-42130-6
    [ http://www.facebook.com/professionalcpp ]

  12. #12
    Arjay's Avatar
    Arjay is offline Moderator / EX MS MVP Power Poster
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    I may have given the impression that debuggers are used only after the code is in use and an issue is discovered. While this is true, debuggers are used throughout the development process. during code and test develoment - really all though the process. Being proficient with the debugger is essential for efficient development.

  13. #13
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    I think you are right. Programmer must do debug sensibly. Not just using the debugging tool, but getting and interpreting the results correctly.

  14. #14
    2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    and knowing how to use all of its facilities properly! IMO many/most programming courses don't cover (if they cover at all) debugging techniques and how to use the debugger. This is a skill which needs to be learnt - ideally very early on in one's programming education.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  15. #15
    Arjay's Avatar
    Arjay is offline Moderator / EX MS MVP Power Poster
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    Re: What debuggers do you use?

    Often the debugging has less to do with the code per se (i.e. code logic or method calls) but more to do with how the code interacts with other parts of the system. Code that uses eventing or multi-threading (parallelism) may not execute exactly how you envisioned it which can result in issues. Part of debugging is learning how to step through code and knowing the debugger's features, but equally important is understanding how to set up the code (i.e. module or modules) so it can be debugged.

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