Yup, the source code still appears in GDB and with a bit of tab completion, inspecting variables ain't that hard, either. I've had worse experiences with C code that abused the preprocessor.

`printf` debugging is still often the easiest way to go.

GDB looks intimidating, but once I decided to try it I'd never go back to printf debugging.

Oh yes, I've used it for many years (though many years ago). For me it depends on the size of the program and the compile time; if it's a short one and compiles quickly, I'll throw a print/puts/print/echo in there just to see what's going on.

That's what happens with "real" debuggers, in my experience! Though Codebug (for XDebug in PHP) is what did it for me, but now I'm using interactive debugging wherever I can. Beats the hell out of trying to print out variables.