Debugging a technology you've never seen before

General principles of debugging in a talk given at the Girl Geek Dinner sponsored by Hackbright and Google.

Transcript

1. Debugging Technology Tuesday, May 14, 13
2. Debugging Technology that you’ve never seen before Tuesday, May 14, 13
3. I’m Liz Instructor/Director of Ops at Hackbright Co-Leader of SF Chapter of Girl Develop It! @lizTheDeveloper lizthedeveloper.com Tuesday, May 14, 13
4. Often, I have to fix things that I've never seen before Tuesday, May 14, 13
5. Everything is a remix. So it follows the same basic principles. Tuesday, May 14, 13
6. My students know I say this all the time: Shake the chain! Tuesday, May 14, 13
7. Most bugs happen because of assumptions Tuesday, May 14, 13
8. Break down some assumptions we make often Tuesday, May 14, 13
9. 1. Is our environment working? Tuesday, May 14, 13
10. 2. Are we writing to the right file? Is the file making it to the interpreter? Tuesday, May 14, 13
11. 3. Has something similar worked before? Can we do a simpler version? Tuesday, May 14, 13
12. 4. Is a value what we expect it to be? Tuesday, May 14, 13
13. 5. Is the state what we expect it to be? Tuesday, May 14, 13
14. 6. Have we identified ALL of the steps to get to this state? Can we test the state? Tuesday, May 14, 13
15. 7. Are we doing what we think we're doing? Are we acting on what we think we're acting on? Tuesday, May 14, 13
16. 8. Does the language even work? (this way, at least) Tuesday, May 14, 13
17. 9. Gremlins? Tuesday, May 14, 13
18. Take it apart. Make it work in isolation. Check spelling. Tuesday, May 14, 13
19. Stack Overflow? Google? Have other people encountered this problem? Tuesday, May 14, 13
20. ( An unclosed parenthesis should make you feel bad inside. Tuesday, May 14, 13
21. Indentation matters It helps you spot when something is unmatched. | Sometimes the interpreter can’t see your errors. Tuesday, May 14, 13
22. Sometimes, things just don't work the way you think they should. Route around. Can we go another way? Tuesday, May 14, 13
23. Thanks! @lizTheDeveloper Tuesday, May 14, 13
24. ) Tuesday, May 14, 13