Eternal Sunshine of the Debugged Mind

A Chat-GPT story about Frustrated Fred debugging some gnarly code:

import pdb

def main():
    # Our developer, Frustrated Fred, has been tasked with debugging the gnarliest code ever written.
    # He's been at it for hours, and he's starting to feel like he'll never figure it out.

    # Fred starts by adding some print statements to try and understand what's going on.
    print("Starting debugging session")

    # But the code is so convoluted that the print statements just aren't cutting it.
    # Fred decides to use the pdb library to set a breakpoint and step through the code line by line.
    pdb.set_trace()

    # As he steps through the code, Fred realizes that there are multiple bugs causing problems.
    # One bug is caused by a typo in a variable name.
    # Another bug is caused by a missing import statement.
    # And there are several more bugs hiding in the tangled mess of code.

    # Fred's frustration reaches a boiling point as he tries to unravel the knots in the code.
    # He's never seen anything like this before, and he's starting to doubt that he'll ever be able to fix it.

    # In a fit of anger, Fred grabs his computer and hurls it out the window.
    # He can't take it anymore. He can't stand this gnarly code.

    # But as Fred calms down, he starts to feel guilty about what he's done.
    # He knows he can't just give up. He has to find a way to fix the code.

    # So Fred gets to work, trying every trick in the book to find and fix the bugs.
    # And after what feels like an eternity, Fred finally succeeds.
    # The code is working perfectly, and Fred can't believe he actually managed to fix it.
    # He's exhausted, but also incredibly proud of himself.

    # As he walks away from his computer, Fred can't help but wonder what kind of person could have written such gnarly code in the first place.
    # But at least he was able to untangle it and make it work.

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

If only Frustrated Fred would have watched this debugging talk and approached debugging with a system and effective tooling, he wouldn’t have been so frustrated!

Ryan Kuhl

Ryan Kuhl is a Sr. engineer at Tatari, master's student at Georgia Institute of Technologs, and new dad.