Save Lives: Debug Code

[Graham Samuel]

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:01:24 -0500, "J. Landman Gay"  
<jacque at hyperactivesw.com> wrote:
> Rob Cozens wrote:
>
>> Hi Marielle,
>>
>>
>>> what I would like to get discussed here is about the strategy  
>>> persons
>>> on this list have to prevent bugs getting into their codes in the
>>> first place and how to spot and process them when they did.
>>>
>>>
>
> <snip Rob's excellent list>
>
> Your list is similar to (though more comprehensive than)  something I
> wrote for testing HyperCard stacks almost 10 years ago. Therefore, I
> think your list is excellent. :)
>
>    <http://hyperactivesw.com/Testing.html>

All great stuff. I would add two ideas: use explicit variables (which  
I confess I don't always do - but it **must** result in cleaner  
code); and code 'defensively', but which I mean that the design and  
scripting of the program should be done with the idea that the app  
could crash at any time, and a restart should be sufficiently robust  
to cope with loose ends in the data etc which may have resulted from  
the crash - for example, if your app writes a private text file, you  
should still design it so that integrity checks can be made every  
time you read it, and if it seems corrupt, you have some strategy for  
dealing with that eventuality.

just one Easter Eurocent (on account of the holidays)

Graham


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Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK and France