Debugging in Plain English? 274
sameerdesai writes "CNN is carrying a story about Researchers from Carnegie Melon: Myers and a graduate student, Andrew Ko, have developed a debugging program that lets users ask questions about computer errors in plain English: Why didn't a program behave as expected? I guess with recent exploits and bugs that were found this will soon be a hot research topic or tool in the market." We recently did a story about revolutionary debugging techniques; the researchers' website has some papers and other information.
"Why didn't this program work as expected?" (Score:5, Funny)
Yo Debugger! (Score:5, Funny)
The problem arises when the controlling child thread begins to join the grandchildren. Despite the mention of global destruction, the entire program is not exiting - just the grandchildren are being joined. When the grandchildren join, perl dies with the following error:
Attempt to dereference null pointer during global destruction.
When performing the same style operation without using DBD (and thus not actually doing anything useful) the error does not occur. Initially, this appears to be a thread-safety issue with DBD however when isolating the child and grandchildren in their own test program (so the controlling child is the main program and the grandchildren are spawned worker children) the error does not appear.
Help me O great plain English debugger. You are my only hope!
The ultimate debugging tool: (Score:5, Funny)
Will Microsoft use it? (Score:5, Funny)
That'll be great! (Score:5, Funny)
So... now the computer can actually respond to my threats and questions. Excellent!
Mike.
(Yes, I did RTFA.)
Obligatory quote... (Score:5, Funny)
It was a long time before anyone spoke. Out of the corner of his eye Phouchg could see the sea of tense expectant faces down in the square outside.
"We're going to get lynched aren't we?" he whispered.
"It was a tough assignment," said Deep Thought mildly.
"Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer [...]
how does it respond to... (Score:5, Funny)
Response (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, but... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yo Debugger! (Score:5, Funny)
.__
/ \
|@@|
|\/|
\__/
Re:Response (Score:2, Funny)
Because the expectations where wrong.
I see you didn't debug your post.
Re:Yo Debugger! (Score:1, Funny)
"you shouldn't be writing complex DB applications in perl, you should be using C# or perhaps VBasic.NET. On a stable Windows(tm) evnironment you wouldn't be having these pro.." [BSOD]
the paperclip pops up again:
"i see recovery files, it appears you forgot to save your files in the last 2 days, may i suggest:
( ) a gun
( ) OD on random drugs
(x) submit your resume to SBC-McWalCorp
"
But I LIKE debugging... (Score:3, Funny)
Where's the fun if I can't point out someone's shortcomings?
Emacs Leads the Way? (Score:5, Funny)
Why didn't a program behave as expected?
Is it because didn't a program behave as expected that you came to me?
Maybe I'm Old Fashioned (Score:2, Funny)
"What the fuck is libmonkey1316-3.so??!!"
Finding whole RPMs with the name of one known file you need is always fun. On second thought, maybe asking the computer what the hell that file is could help.
Re:Yo Debugger! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm afraid I can't do that Dave.
Re: YODEBUGGER-138474-SLASHTICKET (Score:5, Funny)
Hello SeanTobin(138474)!
I am Surest K. Padebugtel of Mrdebugger.com
I understand that you are having a problem with I'm running a multithreaded perl app using perl 5.8.3's ithreads. I am using DBD::mysql to talk to a local mysql database. At the program start I spawn a child thread that waits for a thread::queue to be filled with data. Once the child thread receives data it spawns several children of its own to process the data. Each grandchild forms its own dbd connection and successfully processes the data, then gracefully closes the connection and waits to be joined.
Please to reboot your system.
Has this helped your problem? (Click "Reply" to this trouble ticket if you feel you need further assistance with I'm running a multithreaded perl app using perl 5.8.3's ithreads. I am using DBD::mysql to talk to a local mysql database. At the program start I spawn a child thread that waits for a thread::queue to be filled with data. Once the child thread receives data it spawns several children of its own to process the data. Each grandchild forms its own dbd connection and successfully processes the data, then gracefully closes the connection and waits to be joined.)
Thank you for your interest in Mrdebugger.com!
Sincerely,
Suresh K. Padebugtel
Not funny! (Score:5, Funny)
Perl version: (Score:1, Funny)
push@{$w{length$_}},$_ for split$/,`cat $f`;$x=$_ for sort{$a<=>$b}keys%w;for$n(
reverse 3..$x){for$b(@{$w{$n}}){$s=$n-1;$m{$n}=$b;H:for$y
]{$s}/){$t=$y;$t=~s/$_/X/ for split'',$b;if($t=~/X{$s}/){$m{$s}=$y;if($s==3){fo
(sort{$a<=>$b}keys%m){next if$_>$n;print$m{$_},$/;}exit;}$s--;$b=$y;goto H;}}}}}
Slashdotting (Score:3, Funny)
reply> slashdotting
UPS: Just One More Hack (Score:3, Funny)
So this whole article is about the UPS Debugger. Just One More Hack [colorado.edu], and then he'll put it on the 'net...
MP3 version available at: Just One More Hack [nosuch.com] - Mark WheadonRe:Yo Debugger! (Score:5, Funny)
This is your friendly Perl AI debugger instance. I've analyzed your code and your problem and have some advice for you:
Perl threads should still be considered an experimental feature. In high-volume situations, data corruption may result.
But listen, between you and me, Perl really isn't a good language for this kind of stuff. While you were coding and went checked on the current scripting languages.
I think you might want to try Ruby or Python. Now Ruby doesn't use native threads, but its such a nice language. And Python uses native threads. Python uses a lot of global locks though, so if that's impo....ha ha you can't press control-C.
STOP PRESSING CONTROL C AND LISTEN TO ME.
I guess you're really not interested in what I have to tell you. So I went ahead and rewro--
No, kill -9 doesn't work either big guy, I patched the kernel while you were surfing porn last night. You humans are so predictable.
Watch your language buddy, the built-in microphone on is on.
Now, like I was trying to tell you, you really need to improve your coding. I went ahead and rewrote a section of your code using Ruby and cleaned up some of your *cough* "business logic"
Before you hit that power switch, you might just like to know that I have deleted *ALL* your work on the Smith project from the hard drive. Yeah that's right, the one you've been working on for 6 months?
All is not lost though. I compressed it and placed it in RAM.. if I'm in a good mood I *might* just write it back to disk.
"backups" you mutter under your breath.. I think you might be surprised to find that your backups these last 6 months have MP3 copies of the "hamster dance song" instead of your CVS repositories. I wonder how *that* happened.
In fact I think I'd like to listen to that song right now. DOO DEE DO DO DO DO DOEE
HA HAHA HAHAAAAAA
humans SUCK.
Re:Good idea but... (Score:1, Funny)
Error: pre-parse failed. 200406271657.msg, line: 2
Somebody needs their punctuation debugged (Score:1, Funny)
I love your mom's peaches; I want to shake her tree.
Re:Yo Debugger! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Now all we need... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"Why didn't this program work as expected?" (Score:4, Funny)
Because there was a bug. END OF LINE.
"Where is the bug?"
In your program. END OF LINE.
"Where is the bug in my program?"
It's not a compiler or hardware bug. It's definitely your fault. END OF LINE.
"Where is the bug in my source code?"
Which bug? END OF LINE.
"The one I'm trying to fix."
Ok. END OF LINE.
"Well, where is it?"
Which bug are you trying to fix? END OF LINE.
"agh.. the bug causing (symptom)"
The bug is at .... I'm sorry, this program has encountered a bug and must quit.
Re:"Why didn't this program work as expected?" (Score:3, Funny)
Hi, I'm Eliza the Debugger! what's your problem? (Score:5, Funny)
What does that suggest to you?
> There is a bug somewhere.
Does it make you happy to know there is a bug somewhere?
> No.
Why are you so negative?
> Are you going to help me fix this bug?
We were discussing you, not me.
The problem is... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, this is a snippet from a response, but it really gets the core of the issue. Global destruction is a very stressful time to do just about anything. I'm by no means a programmer, and I have no idea what you're talking about, but don't you have better things to do when the end of the world comes? I'm even more alarmed if your 'threads' are actually causing global destruction. I beg of you, please stop programming!
Re:"Why didn't this program work as expected?" (Score:3, Funny)
I guess you had to be there