Did you know that developers spend a lot of time debugging?

There are various percentages, and this article argues that 75% of the developer's job is debugging. Essentially, you must gradually develop skills on how to find the problem, fix it, and learn from it.

You are going to be evaluated based on these skills in future jobs and even during interviews.

So let's go through steps that can help you debug your code for COMP1800.

Reference: Here’s a good summary of how to use F12 Chrome Inspector https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse154/19su/resources/assets/debugging/chrome-inspector.html

Step 1: Look at the inspector console

To do so, right-click on the HTML page after it is rendered, and choose "inspect" (also F12 for most browsers). Then click on "Console" to see any messages that appear. Generally, start with the first error that is reported.

Step 2: Does the "Error Message" make sense to you?

There are two different scenarios that can happen from here:

• 2.1- You understand the message
• 2.2- You don't understand the message

Step 3 - Time your progress

You don't want to spend a lot of time and get "stuck in a rut". You will get frustrated or overwhelmed if you stare at it for too long. So here is the iterative procedure we suggest.

• 3.1 Spend at least 20 mins to figure out the problem

Step 4 - Unsuccessful step 3, Talk to your Team!

If the problem is not found, approach team members/colleagues and spend another 20 mins as a team to figure out the problem. Similar to step 3, keep re-evaluating your progress by the end of each round and see if you are on track to identify and fix the problem. Sometimes, getting a fresh pair of eyes to look at something helps!

If no success from Step 4, go through Step 5.

Step 5 - Ask for help