Chapter 10. Essential Debugging Techniques

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The techniques used to debug Microsoft Visual Basic .NET are varied and can be quite complex. In addition to the simple concept of a debugger, the .NET Framework also provides a set of tools that you can leverage to diagnose and instrument your applications. The essence of debugging is to discover the root cause of a failure. In certain situations, this can be a simple process and debuggers can be extremely helpful tools. But debuggers are not always appropriate. When they are not the answer, you need to do other things to diagnose the problems. That's what this chapter is all about.

I'll first give you an overview of the common Windows debuggers. Then we'll look at what you can do within your own applications to leverage the .NET Framework to simplify not only debugging but also diagnosing general application problems and failures. This is of critical importance when you either don't have debuggers available or the debuggers alone are not helpful in tracking down problems.

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