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Julia Evans

the debugging manifesto poster I've been talking about is finally available for sale! You can get it here for $20 US + shipping: store.wizardzines.com/products

it was redesigned and riso printed by Inner Loop Press and I'm SO delighted with how it turned out (innerloop.press/)

65 comments
J. Steven York

@b0rk I'm getting old-school chills off that. The design language is very 1985. Not saying that's a bad thing.

algae_disco

@b0rk This graphic touches on one of my biggest lessons: admitting to myself that I don’t understand the data or the code. Previously there was frustration or anger that “the computer isn’t doing what it’s supposed to”. Now, there is curiosity and discovery instead.

The Turtle

@b0rk dovetails somewhat with The Turtle's Four Rules Of Debugging:

1. What is it?
2. What's it supposed to do?
3. When's the last time it did that?
4. What'd you do to fuck it up?

robin

@b0rk Absolutely love this, thank you. I don't suppose shipping to the UK would happen to be surprisingly cheap would it?

robin

@b0rk wow thanks you didn't have to do that!

How is "USPS First Class Package" both slower and more expensive than "Economy International"? 😂

I'll go order one. Thanks!

gws

@nottrobin It takes more time and effort to carry the package around compared to yeeting it off the belt into the truck

tyx

@b0rk
6: [Embedded electronics devs chuckling]

But also want a copy for my students.

Dr John A Stevenson

@b0rk

This is very nice.

I've just been through the bug journey this week.

It turned out that it was my code.

But I did have an adventure and it was solved when I stopped going it alone and posted an issue asking for help.

fosstodon.org/@volcan01010/112

gws

@volcan01010 @b0rk wild bug hunts make good stories, you get to teach and brag at the same time

Dr John A Stevenson

@gws Yes, I'm (not so) secretly quite proud of myself for getting to the bottom of that one.

Janet Vertesi

@b0rk
this is great and i wish I'd had this years ago.

Jim Spath

@b0rk I was at "Step 8" the other day; describing bug-finding-fixing to another person takes creative language skills if they aren't a programmer.
Thanks for sharing!

Ste O'Brien

@b0rk I love number 7. Find a set of tools that work for you and really learn how to use them. I try to simplify and isolate the problem as much as possible. One of my first steps is usually compiling a minimal example in a container with Valgrind and btop.

OwO :flanell:

@b0rk Nice! Although to 6 it should be added that the hardware is often at fault too

Julia Evans

selling these posters is really an experiment -- I don't know if we'll ever print another poster yet!

we printed 500 of this poster and I think if we sell 100-150 of them I’ll call it a success. so far we've sold 30 so it's looking good!

store.wizardzines.com/products

Ross Wintle

@b0rk I’d buy this and the Git Cheatsheet if they could be shipped to the UK cheaply. 😢

Julia Evans

@ross yeah international shipping is always rough, here are the UK shipping rates!

Lazy B0y

@ross @b0rk i’d pay some fee to for the creators but would print them myself as i don’t want them to be shipped from US to EU

Lazy B0y

@b0rk “computers are always logical” but the human made software they run isn’t necessarily ;)

Jeremy Kahn

@b0rk
Bought one right away!

Please don't rush mailing mine; I'm traveling through the end of the month.

I think I'm gonna frame it for my home office 😆

Julia Evans

@trochee awesome thanks!

it should ship within a week or so no matter what, we don’t have much control over that

Jeremy Kahn

@b0rk no worries, it'll be there when we get back!

Matěj Cepl 🇪🇺 🇨🇿 🇺🇦

@b0rk

Explaining the problem to somebody else always helps.

Norman Wilson

@b0rk I just need to figure out where I can fit another poster!

Kevin Miller

@b0rk this poster is dope. If I worked with a team colocated I would have this up for everyone.

Joe Crawford

@b0rk I’m a fan of your zines and of Riso and will be delighted to put this on my wall.

Mark Dominus

@b0rk So glad that #3 is immediately followed by #4.

My "good advice and maxims for programmers" from 199? has "Looking for a compiler bug is the strategy of LAST resort. LAST resort."

(Most of it is not actually good advice, but I think that bit holds up.)

Adam Vartanian

@mjd @b0rk I once tracked a problem down to an actual factual compiler bug and I felt like I had won the lottery.

Mark Dominus

@flooey @b0rk blog.plover.com/prog/compiler-

"I feel as though I have accidentally spotted the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot, or something like that, a strange and legendary monster that until now I thought most likely didn't exist."

Mark Dominus

@b0rk Here's Jeff Atwood's version of this, also inferior to your way of expressing it: "The First Rule of Programming: It's Always Your Fault".

blog.codinghorror.com/the-firs

Julia Evans

@mjd yeah in general I find that debugging advice is often very… condescending? and it makes me mad

Brett Ritter

@mjd @b0rk The rules I teach my students are "the success or failure of you code is usually entirely due to you" and "the goal is to find the exact line of code that is not working as expected".

Mark Dominus

@swiftone @b0rk I call that "the Finger of Blame".

My kid was taking a programming class last year and I explained: "The goal here is to point the Finger of Blame: What part of the code is really responsible for the problem? First you accuse the code that actually prints the wrong result. Then that code says “Nuh uh, it was like that when I got it, go blame that other guy that gave it to me.” Eventually you find the smoking gun."

Julia would probably have a less recriminatory way of putting it.

Mark Dominus

@b0rk I think 99% of the people in the world would have written a version of this that I had some cranky but significant objection to. I saw the title and my heart sank. Then I saw it was from you and felt a glimmer of hope.

And then it made me happy.

Thanks for being a shining city on a hill.

James :fedora: :sway:

@b0rk Does free shipping over $50 count with the poster too? Or is it the exception?

Julia Evans

@jameskupke it’s an exception sadly because it ships separately from everything else

juliepagano

@b0rk Ooo, I love this! Been looking for a poster to put behind my desk in the new office and this is perfect.

Goblin

@b0rk i have ordered this and will be framing and nailing it in the main cs computing lab at bristol uni where i teach as soon as it arrives. The debugging bear will be placed solemnly underneath it if anyone requires any help

Julia Evans

also if you love the debugging manifesto poster I'd recommend checking out Inner Loop Press's other work at store.innerloop.press/, Tanya has so many incredible posters and zines

kgoetz

@b0rk thanks to following @pluralistic when I see the phrase "What if we try X" my brain fills in some variation of "We will experience a new level of trolling and political radicalisation" :|

Elio Campitelli

@b0rk I love this! Is there an option to buy a digital version I can print? I'd like to save carbon (and money) on shipping.

Jamie McCarthy

@b0rk For version 1.1, I would suggest rule 3a would be "check the data" and rule 6a is "what changed?"

interru

@b0rk@social.jvns.ca Disagree with number 6. Computers are built to be logical, and you should debug your software with that assumption. Computers aren't always logical, though.

Examples of row hammer, CPU bugs, cosmic rays, and various other hardware faults exist. Rule number 3 applies to hardware to some degree as well.

Flatbush Gardener 🌈

@b0rk
Excellent. If I was not retired, I'd order and put one up in my cubicle to inspire myself and my team.

Florian Rössing

@b0rk Love it.
I wonder if it could be shrank to postcard format or something?I have no space for posters, but the design and humor is A*

Nicole T. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈☕🐈🖎

@b0rk it looks so good. when mine arrives it will be added to the list of things that deserve a custom frame (which means it might not be framed for months 😭)

narf

@b0rk I think there’s a typo in #5 title. Unless it’s an intentional bug / inside joke… 🙃

Andrew Kelley

@b0rk I purchased one 🙂

how do you like to put posters on the wall? I'm kind of new to decorating tbh

Steve's Place

@b0rk I was sitting next to another programmer who, after much trying, threw his hands up and exclaimed, "Well, it won't work," then a half-hour later had it working. A puree of 2 and 4.

Dan Kim

@b0rk Love this and purchased! Literally just went through a problematic debug yesterday and thought of this.

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