When people discuss the creation of software, they make a clean separation between the tools that one can use, such as an IDE, and the techniques one can use, such as Object-Oriented Programming. In general, good tools can offer efficiencies, analysis, or insight that would be missed without it, and they might even help to reinforce the use of certain techniques, such as Eclipse's support for refactoring as a core piece of functionality.

For whatever reason, people have trouble making this same distinction with debugging. When people talk about it, they tend to refer to the tools they use for the job rather than their theoretical approach to problem solving. Case in point: a post about debugging on the Meebo Blog. It didn't contain any misinformation, but it only mentioned the tools that they use: gdb, core dumps, strace, etc.? It left me wondering: so you open up the core dump with gdb, then what?? How do you search through the massive dump to find the information you need?? Do you keep a detailed history of common errors? Do you generally have an idea of what is wrong before you start?

The notion that the availability or knowledge of certain tools shapes or empowers your thinking has been called "The Fingertip Effect" by Dr. David Perkins,? referring to the concept of? having resources "at your fingertips".? He used it to formulate an argument in the context of educational technologies, where the fingertip effect is generally taken as a given.? Parents frequently demand that a certain number of computers, laptops, PDAs, technology X? be present in every classroom or within the school in order to maximize student opportunities.? The implicit premise is that by making these resources available "at students' fingertips" they will suddenly be able to use them in an appropriate way, and they will naturally benefit.

Most research seems to suggest that this is not true (and Dr. Perkins coined the term for the purposes of investigating, and eventually discrediting the idea).? The problem is that students widely vary in their ability to make use of new technologies without corresponding instruction in its affordances (now I'm really pouring on the ed jargon).? So the fingertip effect isn't necessarily wrong, it's just not a good educational strategy;? technology has to be combined with an effective instructional program so that students actually understand what it can do for them, how it does it, and why.

The same can be said for debugging.? It isn't that a focus on tools such as gdb, strace, or even Delta Debugging is wrong, it's that if you don't have a framework for understanding how to isolate and fix bugs, tools won't help you.? In the same way, having Microsoft Word will not make a poor writer into a good one, even though it will allow a good writer the opportunity to become better since they can spend less time on copyediting and more time on style and content.? In retrospect, the idea that tools cannot be substituted for techniques seems obvious, yet parents continue to call for more computers without calling for more computer-savvy instructors, and the debugging field continues to offer a wider variety of tools without regard for instructing people in their use. My hope is that the material on this blog helps people make better use of the tools that are already at their fingertips.