Article

Chasing The Elusive Bug...

This isn't the name of a Hollywood film or a popular Best Seller. This is what happens at least once if not several times in any project. You know the deal, everything looks fine and dandy and things are going well - almost too well - and then bang! It crashes. Ah, no matter, all of that ultra-useful crash diagnosis we have built in will help us determine and fix the problem. Usually, 99 times out of 100 the error is easily spotted and the fix is trivial. This is what happens on a good day. However, every once in a while you get the mysterious bug. Sure, you've got that diagnosis info but, alas, it doesn't seem to make any sense. You look at the info and you look at the code and, yep, you come to the conclusion that someone is playing tricks. Maybe, it's just a fluke? Maybe, it won't happen again? You've gone ages without ever having seen this bug before and now, it's happening almost all of the time. So, when your best defense for finding and fixing bugs no longer works, what do you do? The answer lies with the illustrious creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, that's it folks - you don a Deerstalker and become a Detective. There are always clues - they need to be examined and you need to draw conclusions. More often as not, you'll need to write code to help detect the problem earlier or help make the diagnosis easier. It's instinct and experience that counts here. The problem can be difficult to detect and trap but you need to persevere. The moment that you finally figure it out brings so many rewards that it makes all of the hard work worthwhile. You can now put away the Deerstalker but make sure it's never too far away as you can't be sure when you might need to call upon it again...