The Art of Debugging with GDB, DDD, and Eclipse

This book is a quick introduction into debugging with mainly GDB, but also a bit of DDD, and Eclipse.

On the plus side, it is easy and fast to read, and it is clearly written. However, this is also no wonder since the topic is treated in a very superficial way. A deeper understanding of the debugging process (like, for example, it can be found in Eli Bendersky's blog article series "How debuggers work", http://eli.thegreenplace.net/programs-and-code/how-debuggers-work/) is not conveyed in the book.

The book focuses on terminal based techniques and small-scale projects. Although I have a lot sympathy for the Unix-Terminal interface, I doubt that the techniques taught are efficiently applicable to larger-projects.

Also, I found the style show more somewhat annoying at times. For example, the authors take some piece of code and consciously delete some line to make up a debugging example (which so far is fine; one might even say: necessary) and then when they arrive at bug they write: "Yeah, you found the bug!". Occasionally, I had the feeling as if a grandpa (the authors) is talking to his grandchild (the reader).

Parts of chapter 6 and the whole chapter 7 have nothing/little to do with debugging, and the only reason that these parts seem to be included in the book seems to be the passion of the authors (well, at least one of them). show less

An okay overview of GDB. I found the repetition of GDB/DDD/Eclipse to be tiresome and a waste of pages. Probably a good book to read if you've only been doing development for 6 months to a year and it's time to learn how to debug and how to use your tools.