What is Debugging?
Programming is a complex process, and since it is done by human beings, it often leads to errors. For whimsical reasons, programming errors are called bugs and going through the code, examining it and looking for something wrong in the implementation (bugs) and correcting them is called debugging. The only help available to the programmer are the clues generated by the observable output. There are a few different kinds of errors that can occur in a program, and it is useful to distinguish between them in order to track them down more quickly.
“As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.
Debugging refers to a process in software development whereby program analysts comb through computer code looking for “bugs” — the source of errors, flaws or security holes in the internal program instructions. Hardware development also goes through debugging to ensure compatibility with current hardware standards and interoperability between components that adhere to the same protocols. Additionally, debugging guarantees that hardware and software is backwards compatible, or will coexist with preexisting standards that might still be in use. Software debugging takes place in two phases. The first phase is known as “alpha testing,” and is performed in-house before the software is made public. The second phase is carried out through a public process known as “beta testing.” Beta testers are voluntary computer enthusiasts that use beta software at their own risks under agreement that errors or problems will be reported to developers. Since bugs must be isolated and identified before they
Debugging is the process of locating and fixing errors (known as bugs), in a computer program, or hardware device. To debug a program or hardware device, you start with a known problem, isolate the source of the problem, and then fix it. When someone says they have debugged a program, or “removed the bugs” in a program, they imply that they have fixed the program, so that the bugs no longer exist in it. Debugging is a necessary process in almost any new software, or hardware development process, whether a commercial product, an enterprise, or personal application program. For complex products, debugging is done periodically throughout the development, and again during the customer beta test stages. Because most computer programs and many programmed hardware devices contain thousands of lines of code, almost any new product is likely to contain a few bugs. Invariably, the bugs in the functions that get the most use, are found and fixed first. An early version of a program that has lots
