Debugging for dummies - The Economic Times
SOFTWARE
Tuesday, July 27, 2004 | Updated at 08:06 hrs IST
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Debugging for dummies
AP [ TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2004 05:24:54 PM ]
Computer bugs, or errors in software, can mess up just about
anything: They've been blamed for missing homework,
blackouts, prison breaks and even the loss of multimillion-
dollar space probes.
They can be costly to the economy - almost $60 billion a year,
a 2002 federal study estimates. But they're difficult pests to
eliminate, because doing so requires programmers to perform
“an elaborate detective investigation,'' said Brad Myers, a
Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor.
“You are trying to make guesses about where the problem is
and prove your hypothesis. A lot of time programmers guess
wrong... and add new bugs because they were trying to fix
something that wasn't broken.''
But help is on the way. Myers and a graduate student, Andrew
Ko, have developed a debugging program that lets users ask
questions about computer errors in plain English: Why didn't a
program behave as expected?
Funded by $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation,
Whyline - short for Workspace for Helping You Link
Instructions to Numbers and Events - is designed for
programmers of all kinds, from hard-core professionals to
weekend Web designers. Their work is part of a larger,
nationwide project - called End Users Shaping Effective
Software, or EUSES - to m