Debugging is hard - this is a fact of life. Unfortunately, it’s never planned nor expected. It takes too much time, time we could have spent doing cool stuff - like developing new features for our customers. But while there are many articles and productivity tools aimed at writing better code – faster, it seems as though it’s impossible to find resources that teach you how to effectively debug your code. In this talk we’ll explore Visual Studio’s more powerful but lesser known debugging capabilities. We’ll also showcase OzCode and explain how it helps finding and fixing bugs faster.

1. Visual Studio debugging tricks every .NET developer should know
Dror Helper | drorh@oz-code.com | @dhelper
http://oz-code.com | @oz_code

2. OzCode’s Technical Evangelist
Developing software since 2002
Clean Coder & Test Driven Developer
Pluralsight author
B: blog.drorhelper.com
T: @dhelper
About.ME

3. Focus on relevant data
Instantly analyze exceptions
Focus on relevant data Search and Filter collections
Get deep insights into your program
Automate Common Debugging Tasks

4. “The process of finding and resolving of defects
that prevent correct operation of computer
software or a system”
Debugging is:

5. Complicated
Never planned
Frustrating
Stressful
Time consuming
Debugging is:

6. Know your tools

7. Debugging time wasters
Cannot reproduce the bug
Not knowing where to start
Start-to-POI time
Multiple restarts during debug

8. What caused the problem?
When was the last time it worked?
What have changed? What is the difference?
What input caused the problem?

9. Breakpoints
Pause execution - where I tell you
So I can inspect my code
• Always
• Conditional
• Trace

10. Fix – Build – Run cycle
To understand how we got there
Because we’ve just crashed
Why we restart debugging?

11. Edit & Continue
Bad: Fix-Build-Run cycles
Good: Fix bugs without stopping debugging
Better: In a single debug run
Even Better: Avoid stepping over the bug

12. Working with Data is Hard
Problem: Data is usually complex
• Huge objects
• Hierarchies
• Collections
Learn More at: https://vimeo.com/185820705

13. LINQ Debugging

14. Give it a Try
https://github.com/oz-code/OzCodeDemo

15. Thank You!
@oz_code
http://oz-code.com
@dhelper
http://blog.drorhelper.com