Preface
Introduction
- The nature of the problem
  - Definitions
- The six ways of thinking
- The two eras of software engineering
  - Structured development history
  - Object-oriented development history
- Debugging and development methodologies
  - Constructive versus cognitive activities
  - Confusing testing and debugging
  - Supporting disciplines developed later
  - Uncommonly common sense
  - Debugging by thinking
- Review
Sherlock Holmes
- Preview
- Worldview of the detective
- Detective fiction
- The character of Sherlock Holmes
  - The life of Sherlock Holmes
  - The literature about Sherlock Holmes
  - The author behind Sherlock Holmes
- The methods of Sherlock Holmes
  - Applying Holmes to debugging
  - Use cross-disciplinary knowledge
  - Focus on facts
  - Pay attention to unusual details
  - Gather facts before hypothesizing
  - State the facts to someone else
  - Start by observing
  - Don't guess
  - Eliminate impossible causes
  - Exclude alternative explanations
  - Reason in both directions
  - Watch for red herrings
- Review
Lord Peter Wimsey
- Preview
- The character of Lord Peter Wimsey
  - The life of Lord Peter Wimsey
  - The literature about Lord Peter Wimsey
  - The author behind Lord Peter Wimsey
- The methods of Lord Peter Wimsey
  - Applying Wimsey to debugging
  - Use alibis as clues
  - Eliminate impossible causes
  - Exercise curiosity
  - Reason based on facts
  - Use the power of logic
  - Enumerate possibilities
  - Use a system for organizing facts
  - Exercise caution when searching
  - Use gestalt understanding
  - Show how something could be done
- Review
Professor Solomon
- Preview
- The methods of Professor Solomon
  - How to find lost objects
  - Applying Professor Solomon's method to debugging
  - Don't look for it
  - It's not lost, you are
  - Remember the three c's
  - It's where it's supposed to be
  - Look for domestic drift
  - You're looking right at it
  - The camouflage effect
  - Think back
  - Look once, look well
  - The eureka zone
  - Tail thyself
  - It wasn't you
- Review
Case Studies I
- Case Study 1
  - The program
  - Bug 1
  - Bug 2
  - Bug 3
  - Bug 4
  - Bug 5
  - Bug 6
  - Bug 7
  - Bug 8
  - Bug 9
  - Bug 10
  - Bug 11
  - Bug 12
  - Bug 13
  - Bug 14
  - Bug 15
Mathematical Problem Solving
- Preview
- Worldview of the mathematician
- Polya and mathematical heuristics
  - How to Solve It -- G. Polya
  - Evaluation
- Mathematical proof texts
  - The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs -- A. Cupillari
  - Thinking Mathematically -- Mason, Burton, and Stacy
  - How to Read and Do Proofs -- Daniel Solow
- Schoenfeld and mathematical problem solving
  - Resources per Schoenfeld
  - Heuristics per Schoenfeld
  - Control per Schoenfeld
  - Belief systems per Schoenfeld
- Applying Schoenfeld to debugging
  - Transferring the hierarchy
  - The military analogy
  - Hypothesis generation and evaluation
- Review
Debugging Strategies
- Preview
- Evaluation mechanisms
- Binary search strategy
  - Binary search assumptions
  - Binary search control structure
- Greedy search strategy
  - Greedy search assumptions
  - Greedy search control structure
- Breadth-first search strategy
  - Breadth-first search assumptions
  - Breadth-first control structure
- Depth-first search strategy
  - Depth-first search assumptions
  - Depth-first control structure
- Program slice strategy
  - Program slice assumptions
  - Program slice control structure
- Deductive-analysis strategy
  - Deductive-analysis assumptions
  - Deductive-analysis control structure
- Inductive-analysis strategy
  - Inductive-analysis assumptions
  - Inductive-analysis control structure
- Choosing a strategy
- Review
Debugging Heuristics
- Preview
- Stabilize the program
- Create a test case
  - Cutting down a simple application problem
  - Cutting down a GUI application problem
  - Cutting down a compiler problem
- Reduce the required input
- Categorize the problem
  - Correctness
  - Completion
  - Robustness
  - Efficiency
- Describe the problem
- Explain the problem to someone else
- Recall a similar problem
- Draw a diagram
- Choose a hypothesis from historical data
- Review
Debugging Tactics
- Preview
- Read the source code
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
- Write a unit test
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
- Display variable values
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Display execution messages
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Display procedure arguments
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Generate a flow trace
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Generate a variable snapshot
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Generate memory dump
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Force variable value
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Assert assumptions
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Check data structures
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Display data structures
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Use runtime subscript checking
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Use runtime stack checking
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Use runtime heap checking
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Initialize global variables
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Initialize local variables
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Change storage class
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Use a different compiler
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Compile to assembly code
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Execute on a different platform
  - Basic tactic
  - Purpose
  - Questions answered
  - Potential problems
  - Refined tactics
  - Related tactics
  - Choosing tactics
- Review
Case Studies II
- Case Study 2
  - The Program
  - Bug 1
  - Bug 2
  - Bug 3
  - Bug 4
- Case Sudy 3
  - The Program
  - Bug 1
  - Bug 2
  - Bug 3
  - Bug 4
  - Bug 5
  - Bug 6
  - Bug 7
  - Bug 8
  - Bug 9
  - Bug 10
The Way of the Safety Expert
- Preview
- Worldview of the safety expert
- Root-cause analysis
- Software-defect root causes
  - General information
  - Symptom description
  - Design errors
  - Coding errors
- Cause-and-event charting
- Fault-tree analysis
- Review
The Way of the Psychologist
- Preview
- Worldview of the psychologist
- Models of human cognition
- Defining and classifying human error
  - Defining human error
  - Classifying different errors
- Explaining error causes
  - Skill-based errors
  - Inattention failures
  - Overattention failures
  - Memory failures
  - Rule-based errors
  - Misapplication of good rules
  - Application of bad rules
  - Knowledge-based errors
- Research review
  - Youngs, 1974
  - Gould, 1975
  - Brooke and Duncan, 1980
  - Gilmore and Smith, 1984
  - Anderson and Jeffries, 1985
  - Spohrer, Soloway, and Pope, 1985
  - Vessey, 1985, 1986
  - Gugerty and Olson, 1987
  - Kessler and Anderson, 1987
  - Spohrer and Soloway, 1987
  - Katz and Anderson, 1988
  - Vessey, 1989
  - Carver, 1989
  - Stone, Jordan, and Wright, 1990
  - Allwood and Bjhorhag, 1991
  - Ebrahami, 1994
  - Summary
- Review
The Way of the Engineer
- Preview
- Worldview of the engineer
- Classifying errors by development stage
  - Conception stage
  - Expression stage
  - Transcription stage
- Avoiding errors by development stage
  - Avoiding conception-stage errors
  - Avoiding expression-stage errors
  - Avoiding transcription-stage errors
- Avoiding errors by coding conventions
  - Object-oriented programming
  - Programming convention
- Building debugging infrastructure
  - Augmented data structures
  - Augmented procedures
  - Specialized interactive debuggers
  - Assertions
- Review
The Way of The Computer Scientist
- Preview
- The worldview of the computer scientists
- Classifying errors by linguistic formalism
  - Chomsky hierarchy
- Detecting errors by linguistic formalism
  - Regular grammars
  - Context-free grammars
  - Semantic analysis
- Static-analysis tools
  - Static analysis
  - Splint
  - CodeSurfer
  - PC-lint/FlexeLint
- Dynamic-analysis tools
  - Dynamic analysis
  - Insure++
  - BoundsChecker
  - Purify
  - mpatrol
  - Examples
- Analysis comparison
  - Static-analysis tools
  - Dynamic-analysis tools
- Review
Get Back to Work
- Review the methods
  - Review now
  - Review later
- Measure your work
- Visit our Web site
  - Download new debugging tools
  - Springboard to other sites
  - Read reviews of other publications
  - Contact the author
Glossary
Root-cause Checklist
Books about Debugging
Software Recommendations
References
Index

Table of Contents