Appendix A: Debugging and Testing

Essential Tips That I Needed to Share (to Clear My Conscience)

Undoubtedly, the majority of you will write completely bug-free code. We all do, right? Don t we all write code that compiles successfully on the first attempt and runs error-free and exception-free after it gets into production? In all seriousness, at one time or another, every developer will make use of some type of debugging tool. Additionally, we all have grown to appreciate the value of testing our code, regardless of how perfect we might think our code is.

Why then have I pushed the topics of debugging and testing all the way back to Appendix A? Frankly, these topics seemed to apply to every chapter. Therefore, I was challenged with the choice of which chapter to include coverage of debugging and testing in. However, there have been a few exceptions. Consider, for example, the following coverage:

• Chapter 13: I briefly mentioned the Application Center Test (ACT) product in a sidebar titled "VS .NET: Designed with Developer Productivity in Mind."

• Chapter 18: I demonstrated the use of both the VS .NET Locals window and the Trace.Write class/method in the section "Code Access Security Introduction." The Trace.Write class/method is a debugging tool.

• Chapter 20: In the section "Tools to Help Monitor Your Application," I covered in detail the Performance Monitor product, the Threads window, and the Disassembly window (the latter two being VS .NET IDE features). I briefly mentioned both the System.Diagnostics.Trace class and the System.Diagnostics.Debug class in the same section. Then, I demonstrated the technique of setting VS .NET breakpoints in the section "The VS .NET Threads Window."

You see, in a few chapters, I have touched on the topics of debugging and testing . In Chapter 20, you ll recall that you even walked through a basic unit test and integration test scenario. Yet, there s more. In this appendix, I introduce to you a few more tools. Consider the coverage of these additional tools an attempt to better prepare you for the real world where debugging and testing are assumed parts of development. Now, let s get started.