“Programming a UNIX system can be fun as well as educational. With the UNIX strace tool and GDB, the GNU Project Debugger, you can really dig deep into the functionality of your system and learn a lot about the various programs that comprise it. Using both tools in concert can be a rewarding experience as you look under the hood of your UNIX machine.” Note: Hey don’t look at me, I just copied the title…
Fun, yea. GDB is useful indeed, when all traces are lost about the possible bug, but I wouldn’t call debugging fun. Tracing programs “just for fun”, well… Kinda amusing, like a conversation with Zuzu Petals…
I prefer Visual Studio debugger because I don’t have to learn those weird commands and I can see both source and disassembly all the time without typing god damn commands.
> I prefer Visual Studio debugger because I don’t have to learn those weird commands and I can see both source and disassembly all the time without typing god damn commands.
gdb is well integrated into Eclipse (with the CDT plugin). Other IDEs, such as Code::Blocks, provide a GUI for gdb too.
And there are also a few dedicated GUIs for gdb (such as Insight or DDD).
I’ve only used it a few times, but the XCode Debugger is very nice too.
DTrace.