Re:Omniscient Debugging
by pron on Monday November 19, 2012 @05:17AM
(#4803723)
Well, I have used it, and it works, but I only use it in very specific cases. First of all, it's a bit of a bother to run; for one, it's not integrated with the IDE. So for bugs in simple areas of the code, I just don't bother and use the integrated debugger.
Then, the really hard problems (for me) usually involve a concurrency bug that manifests itself after a while. When ODB runs out of memory, it will discard the earlier part of the recording (it uses a circular buffer), and so I've found that some vital information is lost.
So I've found that ODB is great for complex algorithm bugs that are easy to reproduce in a controlled fashion. For other use-cases, it's either lacking in power or too much of a hassle.
Then, the really hard problems (for me) usually involve a concurrency bug that manifests itself after a while. When ODB runs out of memory, it will discard the earlier part of the recording (it uses a circular buffer), and so I've found that some vital information is lost.
So I've found that ODB is great for complex algorithm bugs that are easy to reproduce in a controlled fashion. For other use-cases, it's either lacking in power or too much of a hassle.