Why Programs Fail: A Guide to Systematic Debugging - Softcover

Zeller, Andreas

  • 3.71 out of 5 stars
    68 ratings by Goodreads
 
9781558608665: Why Programs Fail: A Guide to Systematic Debugging
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1558608664 ISBN 13: 9781558608665
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann, 2005

Synopsis

Why Programs Fail is about bugs in computer programs, how to find them, how to reproduce them, and how to fix them in such a way that they do not occur anymore. This is the first comprehensive book on systematic debugging and covers a wide range of tools and techniques ranging from hands-on observation to fully automated diagnoses, and includes instructions for building automated debuggers. This discussion is built upon a solid theory of how failures occur, rather than relying on seat-of-the-pants techniques, which are of little help with large software systems or to those learning to program. The author, Andreas Zeller, is well known in the programming community for creating the GNU Data Display Debugger (DDD), a tool that visualizes the data structures of a program while it is running.

  • Winner of a 2006 Jolt Productivity Award for Technical Books
  • Shows how to reproduce software failures faithfully, how to isolate what is important about the failure, and to discover what caused it
  • Describes how to fix the program in the best possible way, and shows how to create your own automated debugging tools
  • Includes exercises and extensive references for further study

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Andreas Zeller is a full professor for Software Engineering at Saarland University in Saarbruecken, Germany. His research concerns the analysis of large software systems and their development process; his students are funded by companies like Google, Microsoft, or SAP. In 2010, Zeller was inducted as Fellow of the ACM for his contributions to automated debugging and mining software archives. In 2011, he received an ERC Advanced Grant, Europe's highest and most prestigious individual research grant, for work on specification mining and test case generation. His book "Why programs fail", the "standard reference on debugging", obtained the 2006 Software Development Jolt Productivity Award.

From the Back Cover

Why Programs Fail is about bugs in computer programs, how to find them, how to reproduce them, and how to fix them in such a way that they do not occur anymore. This is the first comprehensive book on systematic debugging and covers a wide range of tools and techniques ranging from hands-on observation to fully automated diagnoses, and includes instructions for building automated debuggers. This discussion is built upon a solid theory of how failures occur, rather than relying on seat-of-the-pants techniques, which are of little help with large software systems or to those learning to program. The author, Andreas Zeller, is well known in the programming community for creating the GNU Data Display Debugger (DDD), a tool that visualizes the data structures of a program while it is running.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Morgan Kaufmann
Publication date
2005
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1558608664
ISBN 13 
9781558608665
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
1
Number of pages
480
Rating
  • 3.71 out of 5 stars
    68 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9783898642798: Why Programs Fail

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  3898642798 ISBN 13:  9783898642798
Publisher: Dpunkt.Verlag GmbH, 2005
Softcover