Open Source Theory - GDB Sucks
I have a theory that Open Source software is so good and stable compared to Windows software because Open Source debuggers suck.
This means that Open Source developers have to program defensively whereas Windows developers will rely on catching and easily debugging the bugs in the debugger.
Thoughts?
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Steve Lacey, software developer at Google, British, married to the lurvely Nabila, dad to the wonderful Julian and Jasmine. Living in Kirkland (near Seattle), WA.
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About this Entry
This page contains a single entry by Steve published on May 22, 2007 8:44 PM.
It's Almost Like He Waited was the previous entry in this blog.
Insane Kirkland Annexation Behaviour? is the next entry in this blog.
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4 words: On Error Resume Next
What about Windows open-source software? :-)
Hi,
I'm not a developer, and although I can programme few things, I'll post a as a user point of view.
For us (users) it does not matter how good your debuggers are, or how defensively you write your code. What matters is - how it works!
So if it does - it's a good piece of sw, if it doesn't then it's not.
Where I think the big companies (like MS which I am a fan of) have a problem is because they are the "standard" and they need to care about backwards compatibility, universal use etc.
In other words, if you write a very fast and stable 100kB application that does one thing (and does it well), it is something different than having a 10MB app doing the same thing plus about 100 others.
As for OSes, put linux on 90% of all PCs worldwide, add custom made drivers and endless hw and sw configurations, and we'll have the baby crashing all the time (just like they thought opera or mozilla were safer then explorer - until they got more users).
Cheers,
B.
I think its the coffee. Actually its a combination of the theory of relativity and the current brew in the pot.
Microsoft know this. However there is no money in it for them so keep it a secret.
Open source can have input from anywhere. Thinkers outside the box are not constricted by protocol and bureaucracy....and they have to make it work for them.
ergo (whatever that means)it gets done the old fashioned way...line by line.
(did I spell bureaucracy right?)..who cares.
Im amazed anything works...and Im even more amazed it works so well on millions of machines.
Maybe we should all drink tea....
hmmm
I can definitely agree with "gdb sucks" part.
In my experience though, whenever I need to do some serious debugging, I just go to visual studio. Instead of spending much more time in xcode's "debugger" for example.
Not sure if I agree with the premise of your question. All software sucks and OSS doesn't suck any less than Windows in general in my experience. Some apps are robust, some not so much.
So, I'd like to rephrase your observation as: Shouldn't Windows software suck way less than OSS given that they have much better debuggers over there?
And now the answer becomes clear. Most Windows developers (or developers period) don't have the debugging skills to leverage a powerful debugger The extra goodness goes to waste and thus the playing field is leveled through ignorance. LOL!