u/microamplifierin r/emacs • Recommends
John Carmack: Best programming setup and IDE | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips (feat emacs, vim, etc)
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John Carmack: Best programming setup and IDE | Lex Fridman Podcast Clips
Lex Clips
1.6M subscribers • 3 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 2 people: 1 on Hacker News and 1 in engineering communities.
- Presented by John Carmack, co-founder of id Software
- An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
960K views4 years ago2 recommendations
Tools and practiceDebuggingVim, Emacs and editorsDeveloper productivity
John Carmack discusses his preference for graphical debuggers and IDEs over print debugging and explains why he finds developer hostility toward them puzzling.
Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: youtube.com/watch?v=I845O57ZSy4 Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - InsideTracker: insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off - Indeed: indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit - Blinkist: blinkist.com/lex and use code LEX to get 25% off premium - Eight Sleep: eightsleep.com/lex and use code LEX to get special savings - Athletic Greens: athleticgreens.com/lex and use code LEX to get 1 month of fish oil GUEST BIO: John Carmack is a legendary programmer, co-founder of id Software, and lead programmer of many revolutionary video games including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and the Commander Keen series. He is also the founder of Armadillo Aerospace, and for many years the CTO of Oculus VR. PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2MAi0BvDc6GTFvKFPXnkCL RSS: lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 SOCIAL: - Twitter: twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: patreon.com/lexfridmanWhy it's here
2 people recommend thisWhat people say. Engineers point to this clip to contrast print debugging with the benefits of using a proper graphical debugger to explore program state.
Moments people linked to
pengaruon Hacker News • Recommends
On “When I got started I debugged using printf() today I debug with print()”
This was one of the more interesting parts of John Carmack's interview on Fridman's podcast: link to this video
u/yangmungiin r/compsci • Mentions
On “Use public variables; they exist for a reason”
…ing to "debugging" as in the act of "solving a bug," then maybe public members can help if you find yourself "debugging by printing and rerunning." However, this is not usually the most optimal debugging approach, and learning how to use an in-memory debugger maybe valuable (I'll Appeal to Authority by stating that John Carmack promotes debuggers [video
I lastly do not understand your conclusion. I am unsure of an approach that necessarily dismisses public members outright. Header files do not contain private variables (or as far as I know, are not meant for hidden variables), so I do not understand the link there. You did reference `Vector3` so maybe that is a game-development specific t…
u/briguy41968in r/Zig • Mentions
On “What IDE and debugger you're using for zig?”
Is it possible to ask about debugger support without these "printf is all you really need" lectures?
>I've been programming professionally for decades.
If we're appealing to authority here then here ya go.
u/stevanain r/haskell • Mentions
On “New to Haskell: Is There an Existing Tool to Automatically Insert 'traceShow' for Debugging? Open to Suggestions!”
Have you considered using/improving the debugger?
Using debuggers is not very fashionable, especially in the Haskell community, but if you listen to competent programmers such as John Carmack and Martin Thompson then they'll tell you that they use debuggers all the time -- for exactly the reason you seem to be: get an idea of how the program executes and what the intermediate values are during the execution.
More on the software architecture side of things (perhaps a bit less relevent for your question, but still related), John also wrote a .plan about command sourcing and replaying the commands for debugging purposes back in 1998. The way I like to think of this is that it might make…
systemvoltageon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Tell HN: I was tired of being a perfectionist so I built an app within 24 hours”
Thanks for your take. What do you think of John Carmack's1 suggestion that using a debugger is the best way to program? I am by no means comparing myself to Carmack :-) I find debugger a good way to "see" what the program is doing. But that leads to a lot of time wasted. 1 link to this video
heinrichhartmanon Hacker News • Mentions
On “What a good debugger can do”
Contrasting perspective from John Carmack 1 who drops into a debugger all the time to explore state, understand program behavior, debug things, etc. Looks like there is no universal golden path. Differing environments make different approaches effective. 1 link to this video
simscitizenon Hacker News • Mentions
On “I do not use a debugger (2016)”
While we're appealing to authority, we should probably note that John Carmack has a pretty different opinion about debuggers: link to this video
Barrin92on Hacker News • Mentions
On “Ask HN: Is (n)vim worth the trouble?”
vim bindings are worth learning, vim/nvim itself is not. Two reasons. One, graphical debugging. Almost every hardcore vim/nvim user I've met has terminal (no pun intended) printf-debugging disease, or uses an IDE on a second monitor. Carmack talked about it in an interview ( link to this video ) Secondly people, especially with neovim, seem to be hellbent on turning the thing into a GUI editor anyway, with bespoke search interfaces, file tree plugins, graphical plugin installers, and so on. At which point I don't understand why you're not using something made for that purpose rather than painfully try to reinvent it in a piece of software designed to output text
Barrin92on Hacker News • Mentions
On “Don’t look down on print debugging”
Print debugging is a disaster. If there's one widespread practice among non-beginner developers that wastes hours of time it's print debugging. I honestly can't tell how often I have seen people, even experienced programmers (usually because they insist on running some bespoke vim setup) refuse to use a graphical debugger to actually step through a program, and instead they spend hours hunting down bugs they could have found in ten minutes. There's a section of an interview with John Carmack ( link to this video ) where he laments the same thing. It's what the Windows/game development corner of the programming world actually got right, people generally use effective tools for software development.
troupoon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Demystifying Debuggers, Part 2: The Anatomy of a Running Program”
John Carmack: It still boggles my mind how hostile to debuggers and IDEs Silicon Valley VC- backed companies are link to this video
troupoon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Things you can do with a debugger but not with print debugging”
Don't show the discussion to John Carmack. He's baffled why people are so allergic to debuggers: link to this video