Page #48 (Chapter 5 - Securing an IIS Application)

	Chapter 6 - WebClass Debugging and Error Handling
	Visual Basic Developers Guide to ASP and IIS
	A. Russell Jones

Copyright 1999 SYBEX Inc.

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	Chapter 6: WebClass Debugging and Error Handling

	Overview

	One of the main advantages of using VB over ASP is the strength of the Visual Basic debugging environment. Microsoft's latest version of Visual Interdev includes some debugging capabilities and is a huge improvement over the first version, in which debugging was limited to printing debug messages in the browser. Still, VB's debugger is the best in the business.

	My rule of thumb is that VB developers should spend about 60 percent of their time in the debugger. Nevertheless, I've run across numerous programmers over the years who seem to think that debuggers are for wimps and that real programmers just think their way through the problems. Such people always remind me of those who insist that great composers created masterworks out of whole cloth, with no rewriting. Historians have long since disproved that theory; I doubt that inspired programming is any different.

	Because I think the debugging capabilities of VB are so important, I'm going to walk you through a debugging session. Of course, all of you experienced VB programmers already know how to use the debugger, so before you decide to ignore this section, let me assure you that you may learn a few things about WebClasses from it—I know I did.