Editorial Review

Any programmer worth their silicon knows that it is wiser to invest time preventing bugs from hatching than to try to exterminate them afterwards. And this is one of the best books for developing a proactive attitude towards electronic entomology. Follow Maguire's advice, and your testers, supervisors and customers will love you. Recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Maguire is my hero
This is hands down, my favorite book on software engineering. If you care at all about writing quality code, you should read this book. The examples are in C, but the concepts (defensive programming, code that detects bugs, etc.) apply to any language. I read this book early in my career, and have re-read it nearly every year since. The used copies are 8 bucks, and the book is worth 10 times that in practical knowledge.

Please ignore previous negative reviews
I was shocked to see this book get some negative reviews. Those that blasted Microsoft missed the point. This book provides invaluable advice in a quick read. For example, "If you have to look it up, the code is not obvious," or, "If you find yourself designing a function so that it returns an error, stop and ask yourself whether there's any way you can redfined the function to eliminate the error condition." This is the book that convinced me to single-step all my code. The heuristics on proactive bug prevention, which are summarized in the appendix by the way, will save your team time and let you move on to adding features rather than fighting fires.

Just look at the publishing date.
You are looking at a 10-year-old book with a bunch of green screens on the cover. What more can I say. I bought it in preparation for an interview with Microsoft. I did not find it helpful, except for a few pages that do help understand Microsoft culture (but you can learn much more about that on the net). Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Computer program language)    2. C (Programming Language)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computer Programming    5. Computer software    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Development    8. Programming - General    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Programming Languages - General    11. C & Visual C   

Reviews (5)

Worth the money
Even though this entire book is available online, I find it useful to own it.Starts with a simple example, which is my favorite way of getting started.

Found the answer I want
I was looking for information on cross-platform debugging. This manual provides adequate information. A printed manual is sometime helpful when you are so tired looking at the over crowded screen. Good reference! If you are trying to learn the machanism of debugging, you have to find some other book.

Have to respect Stallman
Lets see if Amazon.com allows the link. You have to respectRead more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Programming - General    4. Programming - Software Development    5. Utilities   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (4)

Excellent Practical Advice for Perl Programmers
If your a serious Perl programmer or a long-time Perl scripter whose looking to broaden your horizons then this is an excellent book. Surprisingly, this is really a Perl book for professional Perl developers, sys-admins, and scripters. This book avoids parlor-tricks like "Controlling your coffee maker with Perl" and focuses on how best to make writing and testing Perl code quick, easy, and sometimes even fun.
Perl manual or detective stories?It's both!
Perl hacks is an intriguing book which explores specific problems and their quite practical solutions.This book is easy to dive in and out of.It reads more like a collection of bite sized detective stories rather than a novel.
A toolbox and tutorial for the working Perl programmer
This book is for experienced working Perl programmers - most likely system administrators but not necessarily - that need working solutions to real problems you'll most likely find in the workplace. There are a few diversions into such "cute" ideas as building animations in Perl, but most of these hacks are for the working programmer who is looking for ways to automate processes, build interfaces that don't get in the way of developers, and thoroughly test and simulate code. Amazon does not show the table of contents so I review this book in the context of the table of contents.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Internet - World Wide Web    5. Perl (Computer program language)    6. Programming - Software Development    7. Programming Languages - CGI, Javascript, Perl, VBScript    8. Programming Languages - Perl    9. Computers / Languages / Programming    10. Computers / Programming Languages / CGI, JavaScript, Perl, VBScript    11. Computers / Programming Languages / Perl    12. Perl, hack, hacks, testing, debugging, profiling, data munging, modules, databases, introspection, chromatic, Nathan Torkington    13. Programming languages   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Programs Debugging    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Microcomputer Application Software    6. Programming - General    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    9. Computer Programming    10. Computers / General    11. Internet   

Editorial Review

In the predecessor volume of Read more

Reviews (9)

Definitive guide to Windows debugging
I have bought all of John's books. He is the guy Microsoft calls when they can't solve a problem. On top of that he has a great writing style, is easy to understand, and has some great war stories. His books are always the top of my recommended reading list.

A very useful discussion of Windows debugging practices
This book brings a vast amount of Windows-specific debugging information together in one place and has been very helpful to me. Some of this info could be found elsewhere, but only by sorting through dozens of documentation pages and magazine articles, some many years old, and additionally the author adds value by giving very explicit instructions (even providing source code) on how to do things that are often only hinted at in the Microsoft documentation.
Good sequel, hope to see the next one too
I'm writing this to thank that guy who posted the table of contents in an effort to show how this book is the same as John Robbins' prior - since that is what convinced me to buy it :-)
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Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computer Programs Debugging    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Debugging in computer science    7. Development    8. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    9. Microcomputer Application Software    10. Microsoft .NET    11. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    12. Operating Systems - Windows    13. Programming - General    14. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    15. Programming Languages - General    16. Computer Communications & Networking    17. Computers / General    18. Microsoft Windows   

Features

• Student Edition

Reviews (1)

Just what testers (and devs) need!
I first have to admit to some bias - I wrote the forward, and work down the hall from Tom and Lawrence. So you may want to just read it yourself and see!
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Internet General    2. Computer Data Security    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. General    6. Internet - Security    7. Security - General    8. Computers / General    9. Data security & data encryption   

Reviews (27)

A feel-good management book
Maguire's book is a very gentle handbook to guiding software projects.Relatively light and fast-paced, it can be read in just a few hours.His insights and tips about team management are definitely helpful, but my feeling is that he never attacks the difficult problems of management.
Good advice for software development teams
This book makes lots of good points about the software development process.Steve's ideas ring true based on my past experience with more companies than I like to think about.Although the ideas are somewhat obvious if one thinks about them, I found it amazing how many companies ignore these 'obvious' ideas.The most impressive ideas I found in this book pertain to meeting schedules without brow beating to the point where people with hard earned experience leave the organization simply because they're driven into the ground.

Quick Read That's Worth Your Time
When I read this book, the information seemed simple and obvious.However, I also realized that there were a number of things mentioned that I wasn't doing.That begs the question: Is the material that simple and obvious?Maybe not.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer software    4. Debugging in computer science    5. Development    6. Management    7. Management - General    8. Programming - General    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Software Development    11. Computer Programming    12. General Theory of Computing   

Reviews (5)

Good book to learn debugging Linux from
The previous commentator is misleading. Although the book doesn't really give very elaborate examples, it's at least good enough to introduce the reader to the subjects and tools as a starting point to dig around himself. The materials are certainly not all for beginners.
only for Linux beginner
If you knows Linux system well enough, don't buy this book. This is only for Linux beginner and doesn't have enough detail to go deep enough inside Linux. You may better off just looking at internet.

Learn how to debug Linux code at both kernel and application levels
Learn how to debug Linux code at both kernel and application levels through a hands-on tutorial which covers all kinds of performance optimization issues. From cache misses and memory management issues to network performance and dump analysis from crashes, Linux Debugging And Performance Tuning Tips And Techniques is packed with real-world examples, with screen shots and code lists helping explain debugging logic and procedures. Highly recommended for any Linux systems administrator involved in debugging processes.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Operating Systems    2. Computers    3. Computers - Operating Systems    4. Debugging in computer science    5. Operating Systems - Linux    6. Operating systems (Computers)    7. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    8. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Reviews (10)

Indispensible for coaching as well as self-guided study.
If, after twelve years or so of work, you find yourself bringing junior team members along and filling the role of mentor or lead, you are expected to impart your accumulated experience and wisdom onto the newcomers, so that the hard-won lessons need not become a re-nvention of the wheel.The most common problem in doing this is succinctly and effectively communicating the messages.This book does exactly that, for debugging problems.
Buy This Book.
Oh boy, how much easier an engineer's life would be if every tech book was written like this one.Let's face it, nobody likes debugging. The only thing worse is teaching someone else. Now it's easy, just give them this book.Better yet, give them this book, and make them debug your work.They might even enjoy it.

Great for programmers
This book was not written specifically with software in mind, but I was very pleased to find out how it can improve the routine of any programmer. Since I read this book, I debug code in a much more "scientifical" and systematic way, instead of the old empirical, ad-hoc approach I had before (which seemed good enough for me at the time, since I didn't know any better)
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Subjects:  1. Automation    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business Software - General    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computer software    6. Computers    7. Debugging in computer science    8. General    9. Hardware - General    10. Programming - General    11. Quality control    12. Computer Programming    13. Systems management   

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Industries - Computer Industry    5. Programming - Software Development    6. Social Aspects - General    7. Computers / Social Aspects / General   

Reviews (3)

From the creator of the GNU Data Display Debugger (DDD)...
"Why programs fail" attempts to provide a systematic approach to finding, reproducing, and fixing programming errors, with a strong focus on the automation of many debugging techniques. Zeller covers the whole debugging process:
Lots of interesting ideas
This book contains perhaps a bit too much general background. After all, there are already many shelfloads of books out there that cover things like design and project management.
Extremely thoughtful
As a practionner I am delighted to see a systematic method applied to software. Too often is writing software compared to art or magic, while more often that not it is a matter of rigour, analysis and rational thinking (intuition does not hurt of course). The author attacks the problem of dealing with software defects with method and his analysis is sound. This book is a very welcome help to developers but can also help the quality assurance departement. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Debugging in computer science    5. Programming - General    6. Programming Languages - General    7. Computer Programming    8. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Reviews (1)

Like a grad. level paper: Helpful, if you can read it.
I got this book hoping for helpful ideas on how to debug multithreaded programs.This book has them, but the writing isn't that clear or readable.It reads like a grad. level paper more than a standard technical book that most of us are used to.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Parallel programming (Computer science)    5. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    6. Threads (Computer programs)    7. Computer Programming    8. Computers / Programming / Object Oriented   

Reviews (3)

Consistently off topic
OK, this book isn't really bad. But it has very, very little to do with debugging. Most of the book is given over to general software engineering (requirements, design, coding and test). Perhaps 1/4 of the book is really about debugging, and that seems to consist of two things - logging and tracing - over and over again.
Rich with wisdom
I admit that I bought this book fully expecting to be Not as helpful as it could be
In reading the book, there were many great platform idependantideas for debugging applications. I think it would have been more helpful if the book would have at least cursorily implemented some of those ideas in code (my preference being C/C++). Some examples of what I mean are it says that one of the oldest ways of debugging applications use a log. It even goes to say what elements to include to make it as useful as possible. I think it would have been better to include the code implementing a logger they describe. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books And Software    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Information Technology    6. Programming - Quality Assurance & Testing    7. Programming - Software Development    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Applications of Computing    10. Computers / Languages / Programming    11. Computers / Programming / Software Development    12. Computers/Programming - Quality Assurance & Testing   

Reviews (2)

good leads on avoiding pitfalls
Really enjoyed the discussion on traps and pitfalls, and the differences that the VB.NET language has with C#.Coming from a C# background and having to deal with VB.NET in a later project, had to confront many subtle differences.This book goes very well with ".NET Gotchas"
Brilliant - Comprehensive Coverage On VB.NET Debugging
This book is a must read for anyone doing VB.NET development work.I felt so lucky when I found this book because I haven't found a book like this on the market for .NET debugging.This isn't just a book you read through once, and set aside, as it will definitely become a permanent part of your reference library.The author did an absolutely exceptional job in comprehensively covering debugging techniques and issues from everything from ASP.NET, SQL Server, Windows Forms, Web Services, to Classic VB, and the depth of knowledge this author shares about such things as debugging tools, approaches to take towards a project, and how to really fully use Visual Studio .NET's debugger are never taught in college courses.There is even a full chapter on debugging multithreaded applications, which the author even mentions that most Visual Basic programmers are unfamiliar with.I got this book initially to study Visual Studio .NET's debugger capabilities, and learn about debugging techniques, but I was amazed at the volumes of information.This book is so versatile that you can match the debugging techniques to the type of project your might be faced with, and that's why I say again "It's going to be a great reference book to keep handy by your desk."The detailed information on such things as utilizing Visual Studio. NET's debugger is much better, and easier to understand than information I have seen on Microsoft's Website.So many different debugging scenarios are covered, but just as example, in Visual Studio .NET the author explains how to attach the debugger to a process, or how to debug programs without loading them into the IDE, such as a production component that is currently running, or a Web service running on another machine, and gives a very thorough breakdown on the general debugging options in Visual Studio .NET.This book even offers great insight into why bugs even happen in an application in the first place.What I also enjoyed about this book is that I could jump ahead to any chapter I wanted to read.The writing style is smooth, and easy to follow.The examples given are endless.
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Subjects:  1. Basic (Programming Language)    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Computer Programs Debugging    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming - General    7. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    8. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    9. Basic, Visual Basic & QBasic    10. Computer viruses    11. Computers / Information Technology    12. Internet   

Reviews (5)

Going from language to language is of dubious benefit
While this book does something that I am in strongly in favor of, I don't agree with the approach. Barr presents a series of code segments that contain bugs and the reader is challenged to find the error(s). The bugs introduced into the code are fairly common, so finding them will be excellent practice for coders at all levels of experience. The segments of code are short, generally less than two pages, so finding the bugs does not require a great deal of searching.
Interesting brain teasers for coders
This book has a set of bugs to work through in C, Java, Perl, Python, and Assembler. The bugs range from rudimentary syntax mistakes to more complex and subtle bugs. Hints are given to help you along the way. These will definitely give you brain a spin. Much link the C lint bugs in that have been printed in Dr. Dobbs for years. If you enjoy logic puzzles and bug hunting you will like this book.

Great read!
Adam Barr steps you through code analysis in a logical fashion, guiding you around some obvious and not so obvious pitfalls. His writing style makes it easy to understand his concepts. Adam's selection of languages benefits programmers of all backgrounds. I especially enjoyed looking through the Python examples. The language summary at the beginning of each chapter is a great idea to acquaint newcomers to a language. Experienced programmers as well as hobbyists will find great value in the examples. Not only will you become a better debugger, you will become a better programmer. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming - Software Development    5. Programming Languages - General    6. Computer Programming    7. Computers / Programming Languages / General   

Reviews (2)

A black art
Having being inolved in debugging embedded systems from a hardware and software perspective for a number of years, I found it amusing that someone else out there shared my sentiments. Practical information but opinionated.
This book describes some practical debugging techniques.The reading is not very heavy.My biggest complaint is that the author appears to carry a big chip on his shoulder regarding the relationship between engineering andmarketing, sales, and management.Unfortunately, this detracts from whatwould otherwise be a good book.Some of the comments made againstmanagement and marketing indicate quite a bit of resentment that has builtup over the years.This book should not have been the vehicle to expressit. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Programs Debugging    3. Computers    4. Debugging in computer science    5. Electronics - Microelectronics    6. Embedded computer systems    7. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    8. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    9. Microprocessors    10. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    11. Technology & Industrial Arts    12. Personal computers    13. Systems management    14. Technology / Electronics / Microelectronics   

Reviews (1)

Kick Out the Jams
Expert SAS programmer Burlew provides various techniques for interpreting and preventing programming errors in this hefty, (and expensive) technical book from SAS Publishing.While there is a great deal of useful information, the book awkwardly combines the simple and the advanced.For example, chapters 1 and 6 explain automatically generated error messages in SAS logfiles.A great many of these errors are either self-explanatory, unnecessary to understand in the detail presented here, or may not be included in your own program logs.Still, it is very helpful to have these listed and explained in a compact form.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Debugging in computer science    6. Mathematical & Statistical Software    7. Programming - General    8. Quality control    9. SAS (Computer file)   

Reviews (8)

Dont ever buy this book
This book is all about how to set up the debugger and get some basic information on the error.
Outdated, Obsolete, Full of Typographical Errors
Don't even bother borrowing this book from the library. It is a waste of shelf space. My first clue should have been the book's website no longer exists.
Total disappointment
If you are looking for some meat about debugging then this is NOT your book. IT's not beyond a debugger documentation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Operating Systems    2. Computer Programs Debugging    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Debugging in computer science    6. Microcomputer Operating Environments    7. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    8. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    9. Operating Systems - Windows    10. Operating Systems - Windows 2000    11. Operating systems (Computers)    12. Programming - General    13. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    14. Reference    15. Reference / Publishing   

Reviews (3)

standard common sense
If you know some debugging this book probably will not teach you anything new but if you are new to it, it gives you an idea of how to proceed.Nothing new or special about the content, just a small solid book of how to debug.

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