Re:Bad programming ideas that only become apparent after years
by taeric on Sunday December 27, 2020 @12:44PM
(#25552699)
Amusingly, cweb does maintain line numbers. My mind was best blown the first time I saw a step debugger work on cweb source.
That said, with the proliferation of distributed systems that are commonly executing where you can't connect a debugger, I've found many aren't even aware of what they are missing. Jrebel, I recall, was very popular in some circles. Today, I'm not even sure most of my colleagues have ever used a debugger in a professional context.
They are both abstractions that substitute an explicit operation with just a name; and thus both require that you expand your vocabulary when holding the program context in your head. Abstract at the wrong level, and you increase difficulty; abstract at the correct one, and you lower it.
Where I do think the main problem with macros is, is in debugging - because I know no macro system that maintains metadata on the written code to help explain the higher (macro) conceptual level once a stacktrace / condition / segfault / error arises.