67.

A Quick Recap

As the first few chapters have shown, consideration for the debugging process can have a tremendous impact on the high-level method we use to develop software, as well as the priorities we set when designing it.

In this chapter, we've described the scientific method:

1. Observe the system.

2. Form a hypothesis to explain the observations.

3. Test the hypothesis with new experiments.

4. Repeat until you arrive at a hypothesis that explains the observed behavior in its entirety.

And we've demonstrated how you can use the scientific method to define, refine, and facilitate your code-design and -debugging efforts.

In Chapters 6-21, we'll discuss 13 common types of bug patterns: how to identify them, how to fix them, and how to prevent them. Once we're familiar with these patterns, we'll examine the impact of what we've learned on the program design techniques we choose.