Customer Reviews

Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've enjoyed every edition of John Robbin's debugging books and this is a valuable update. Given the reality of development on Windows these days John has wisely split the subject matter into managed (.NET) and unmanaged (ye-olde C++). This book is the first in a 2 volume set. In other words the 3rd edition is split accross two volumes. This makes so much sense since a lot of developers will want a detailed and focused approach that addresses their day to day view of development. Don't for a second think that "managed" and "unmanaged" volumes means "easy" and "advanced" respectively. The section in "Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications" on WinDbg and SOS are seriously low level and worth the cost of entry on their own.

The book wraps up with a great section on writing custom FxCop rules - if you haven't bought into FxCop yet this chapter will I think go a long way towards convincing you.

I'd give the book 4.5 stars, but the rating system doesn't allow that. Get a copy and read it. Better still get your boss to buy a copy for every member of your team. Aside from the best-in-the-industry advice it's one of those books that fires you up about Doing It Right!

When I picked up this book, I must admit I didn't expect to learn that much. However, the amount of invaluable info and references that John Robbins had put into it completely overwhelmed me.

This book is not just about debugging. It is also about how to prevent having to spend hours upon hours debugging your code. It teaches some excellent practices (such as creating custom rules - and custom dictionaries! - used in code analysis by FxCop (see preceeding review)), and reinforces it with plethora of code for you to use for just the price of the book!! Apart from focusing just on debugging your own implementations, the book also looks at the bugs potentially introduced by versioning inconsistences and the known Visual Studio bugs, too (moreover, it offers solutions to those as well!).

The bottom line: I love it. If you'd rather write new code than debug your old stuff, do buy this book. It'll help you free your hands for new developement, and you'll love it too.

I agree with the previous reviewers. This book covers so much more than 'just' debugging - although there are plenty enough tips on the Visual Studio debugger and WinDBG to make the book worthwhile for that alone.

But John Robbins' main aim is not so much to help you to debug your program in the common sense of the word (i.e. by using an interactive debugger), but rather to 'de-bug' your program by teaching useful techniques and attitudes that will help you to write quality code. The custom Code Analysis (FxCop) rules mentioned by previous reviewers are one example of that; but you'll also learn how to prepare and use your development environment (source control, bug tracking, system builds, etc) to maximise your code quality. And you'll see how to write code that's easy to debug. And there's a slew of free utility code that you can download, which is covered in detail in the book. And a review of loads of useful development tools.

Most importantly, this is a handbook for evangelists of code quality. It's like a practical interpretation of Steve McConnell's classic Code Complete, for .NET developers. In my professional life, I have worked in some very quality-oriented organisations (as well as some not-so) and I know from experience how much can be gained from building in quality from the first. My problem is convincing some of my clients, who often want to take the quickest and cheapest option (and then they pay later). The lucid writing and the infectious fervour for quality in this book have helped me, and will help you, to explain the issues to those with the cheque book. If you are struggling to convince your client/boss that quality is worth the investment, you should seriously consider adding this book into your armoury.

What's more, despite being such a luminary in the Windows development world, John was able to find the time to reply in depth to an email query that I sent. One subtle touch - when he suggested that I might like to write a book review, he was observant enough that he sent me the link to the amazon.co.uk Web site rather than the .com one. Now *that's* the kind of attention to detail that produces quality!

What are you waiting for? Put this in your shopping basket now!

First off, yes the book contains information (tons of valuable links sprinkled with the one or other wisdom of the author (although these were quite often common knowledge in respect to professional programming))

But looking at it from my perspective I was honestly put off by endless tirades of how to bother your boss, how to endanger your job etc. etc. etc.

This book could have been reduced to the links plus approx. 10% of the original text (even less) without losing ANY information (besides the above mentioned fully irrelevant).

This book gave me the impression that the author "taped" a few evenings out with the guys during heaving drinking telling them how cool he is and once in a while actually dwelling on the facts (max 10% <- generous approx.). If you are used to reading a good fact book (e.g. CLR VIA C# Jeffrey Richter, Microsoft Press, Wintellect (same company as John Robbins)) and just consuming it THIS book IS NOT FOR YOU. On the other hand, if you like adventure stories and always wanted one on debugging this might be just what you were always looking for (I hated it from chapter 2 on and had to put it away many many times, having to force myself to start reading again and again and again).