Debugging Guide

[Mattmlm]

@nickai Outline for Debugging guide.txt

[nickai]

The content looks great!

For the organization of the content, what do you think about organizing it as a series of debugging skills, something like:

• Fixing Warnings and Errors
• Using breakpoints
• Setting breakpoint for all exceptions
• Using conditional breakpoints
• Stepping thru code
• Using print statements to aid in debugging
• Examining variables in the debugger
• Debugging view layout issues
• Using Reveal?
• Simulating Location?
• Using Playgrounds?

We are building out the debugging lab so it will be awesome to link to the debugging guide for the students to get a lot more info on these topics.

I feel like Instruments might be meaty enough though to be part of an "Advanced Debugging" guide.

[Mattmlm]

Hey Nick,

I originally did consider organizing it as a series of debugging skills, but considered organizing it in the following process:

• Getting code to run
• Having code run, but not properly
• Fixing runtime logic

As you've suggested, I'll go along with dividing it up by the actual tools, with:

• Issues Navigator
• Breakpoints and stepping through code
• Using the console and print statements
• Examining variables in the Variables View
• Using the native View Hierarchy Debugger

I haven't played with Reveal before, but I can create a section for it and later add to it. I'll add a brief bit about simulating location, and also the perks of Playground.

Instruments is definitely a to-be-added section. I was really adding it as a placeholder.

I will include a Gotchas section, in terms of acknowledging how xcode can be buggy and probably note it in the overview, so that people understand it isn't completely infallible (especially in regards to the view layout).

On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 6:48 PM, Nick Aiwazian notifications@github.com wrote:

The content looks great!

For the organization of the content, what do you think about organizing it as a series of debugging skills, something like:

• Fixing Warnings and Errors
• Using breakpoints
• Setting breakpoint for all exceptions
• Using conditional breakpoints
• Stepping thru code
• Using print statements to aid in debugging
• Examining variables in the debugger
• Debugging view layout issues
• Using Reveal http://revealapp.com?
• Simulating Location?
• Using Playgrounds?

We are building out the debugging lab so it will be awesome to link to the debugging guide for the students to get a lot more info on these topics.

I feel like Instruments might be meaty enough though to be part of an "Advanced Debugging" guide.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/codepath/ios_guides/issues/27#issuecomment-180663225.

Matthew Mo

[nickai]

:+1:

Reveal costs money so we can just link to it as an alternative option to the native view hierarchy debugger.

[nickai]

@Mattmlm - This guide is great! The first set of students are going through the debugging lab today and using the guide to get them through the lab.

During the lab, two additional areas surfaced that I think we should get into the debugging guide:

• Debugging AutoLayout issues (Level 6 in the lab)
• Pulling in some of the common issues from the designers guide into the debugging guide (i.e. the key value coding compliant issue)

[Mattmlm]

@nickai

• Definitely, I completely forgot about AutoLayout issues. I'll be sure to add that into the debugging guide.
• Also, I'll add the common issues from the designers guide into the Gotchas section. That document is really useful!

[nickai]

:+1: