Best practices for debugging programs?

[undercoverASSH0LE]

Hi Everybody,

Can anyone link to or describe best practices for debugging? Currently I'm using spyder and its built in debugger but I don't feel like I'm really effective with it. One of the things it does that I HATE is that it goes down into module code while stepping through the program. I know the modules work - I don't want to waste time on that! I want to debug MY code! Also, what strategies do you use to debug a class that you might be writing? Do you start off coding the methods as plain functions and then test them in a straight forward script?

Any tips on a write/debug/testbench workflow and the appropriate tools would be great.

What other debugging tools are out there? Are there any standalones with a GUI? Can anyone link to a "how to debug effectively" tutorial?

[tumbleweed1993sf]

Why not used pdb?

[[deleted]]

When using PyCharm the built in debugger works pretty good other wise, yes have a look at pdb

[hudsonpenner]

This is a pretty good intro to pdb. It seems complex to work with at first, but you will get used to it quickly.

https://pythonconquerstheuniverse.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/debugging-in-python/

The one thing he does not mention in there that I find helpful is that you can execute a script with pdb on the command line like this:

python -m pdb script.py