> I think most Linux c/c++ devs just do everything without a debugger and use emacs and vim instead

They often use gdb or some sort of front end. I learned gdb in a college Unix course and found it to be a pain. But I’m sure like all things with unix commands, once I figured out what I want for daily use it would become more comfortable.

Did you use gdb in CLI mode? It has a TUI mode that's really really helpful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PorfLSr3DDI (@2:30)

I'll admit I seldom make use of debuggers. Strangely I feel more productive with good old "printf debugging" than using fancy debuggers.

I think it is more just a habit at this point and has the beauty of working just about everywhere within every toolset, versus learning how to use each language and IDE's debugging functionality.

The benefit of debuggers is that you can run experiments on your program while it's running. You don't have to stop, add a new print, recompile, re-run, and do whatever steps were required to get to the point of the printf. As you inspect the data, you can further ask more questions of your program without having to start all over again.

These days, I refuse to start a new language if there is no debugger or IDE available for it. I did that in C using an Ubuntu server with only vim and makefiles all through college, and I'm never going back to that.

I tried web assembly the other day. I couldn't get a decent debugger environment running on it, so I abandoned it.