Introduction to Tools and Techniques in Computer Science

Contents:

Setup, writing structured text, and file management

Remote connections and command-line file management

Compiling and running code, version control

Advanced version control, project management

Advanced shell usage

Digital notebooks and getting help

Debugging (strategies and usage)

Command-line environment

Shell scripting

Build systems and dependency management

Containers, virtual machines, and “The Cloud ™”

Running your own Linux system

Summary

Franklin Bristow

Summary

Programs crash. They crash all the time. Sometimes it’s easy to figure out why a program is crashing, but your programs will quickly get too big for someone to glance at and definitively say “That’s where the problem is!” (even for you, the person writing the program).

Uncovering the flow of how your program got into a specific state is the whole goal of debugging, whether you’re using a pencil and paper, or using a tool like lldb.

You should now be able to:

Describe what debugging allows you to observe about a running program.
Use log-based debugging to identify a problem with code.
Use a visual debugger to set breakpoints, inspect values, step through a running program, and make observations about a program when it crashes.
Use a command-line debugger to set breakpoints, inspect values, step through a running program, and make observations about a program when it crashes.

Now you should be ready to start working on the assignment this week!