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How frequently do you use profilers/debuggers at work? (anarch.is)

submitted 1 year ago by pinkpatrol@anarch.is to c/programming

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I know profilers and debuggers are a boon for productivity, but anecdotally I've found they're seldom used. How often do you use debuggers/profilers in your work? What's preventing you? conversely, what enables you to use them?

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[–] miniu 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This usually depends on which industry you work in, and what language you're using usually :)

I work in gamedev, c++, and I ALWAYS use a debugger. There's no running the game, or even the editor without the debugger connected. No matter if you need it currently or not. You always launch the project through the debugger so if anything comes up you can investigate immediately.

Profiler is used any time there's a performance problem.

[–] miniu 2 points 1 year ago

What enables me to use them is probably that this is very much true for the whole industry so software is built with that in mind.

For example, we use special "print" statements for some of the errors that if a debugger is running, it will automatically stop the program so you can investigate. Without a debugger, it will just output the error in the log.

There is no docker, the app is running usually on your local hardware. Consoles are also built with debugger support that you connect to from your PC. So it's very easy to use. Even connecting to another PC in a local network, for example, an artist or tester hardware, is possible from your computer without a problem. We have all the tools prepared for that.