Debugging is the process of examining the state of a program - generally with a debugging tool - while it is running and attempting to find bugs that cause it to behave abnormally.
Questions on the following subjects about "debugging" are accepted:
- The "debugging" phase itself
- Debugging techniques/skills
- How best to debug a given application, be precise in what seems to be the problem (distributed application, concurrent debugging, etc.)
- When (not) to use a debugger in a given context ; again, be precise.
According to Wikipedia, there is a controversy on the origin of the "debugging" word:
The terms "bug" and "debugging" are both popularly attributed to Admiral Grace Hopper in the 1940s. However the term "bug" in the meaning of technical error dates back at least to 1878 and Thomas Edison and "debugging" seems to have been used as a term in aeronautics before entering the world of computers. Indeed, in an interview Grace Hopper remarked that she was not coining the term. The moth fit the already existing terminology, so it was saved.
We don't need any more questions on the origin of the term or definition of bug "types".
