I know this is going to sound hopelessly naive, but today I discovered the power of a great debugger. I’ve read extensively and the advice is always to get comfortable with debugging software. Unfortunately, the realities of my previous job were such that I actually could not use the VisualStudio.NET debugger. I read that it was a handy tool, but I could only look longingly at the Debug menu and imagine what wonders it held leashed.
So today my mentor recommended that I step through the Windows service I was having trouble with. “Oh yeah,” I thought to myself. “I remember something about the words ‘step through’ associated with the debugger.” I let her give a quick lesson in the practical use of the debugger and I was absolutely floored. Logging is great and trace is neat, but a debugger that lets you watch and interactively ask for values is freaking fantastic.
Now it’s time to investigate the debugger’s power.