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Debugging is Computer Science
An awful lot of computer science has nothing to do with science - it's rather more like applied discrete maths. Oxford call their undergrad degree 'computation', and I have rather a lot of sympathy with this approach.
There are some parts of the subject which really are more like science, with experiments and stuff. Good systems design, for example, where benchmarks are created and implementations profiled, has a lot in common with setting up a lab experiment. However, this stuff rarely makes it into an undergrad course.
This perhaps explains why so few people seem to be able to debug properly, for debugging is science. Actually, it's worse than that. In science, you build a hypothesis, and then create an experiment that tries to disprove your hypothesis - if you can't, you have more confidence in your hypothesis. In other words, you start off with a consistent view of the world, and try to construct tests to extend your understanding. With debugging, your view of the world ('This should work') doesn't coincide with the reality ('It doesn't'). You have to design experiments to clarify where your view of reality differs from reality.
In short, in science you're testing hypotheses, in debugging you're testing assumptions. Either way, a scientific mindset is vital.
Permalink. Posted 22:08, Fri, 21 Jan 2011.
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