List of Sidebars | Debugging Applications for MicrosoftВ® .NET and Microsoft WindowsВ® (Pro-Developer)

Chapter 1: Bugs – Where They Come From and How You Solve Them

Common Debugging Question: What do we do if we're having trouble reproducing builds sent to others outside the team?
Common Debugging Question: The STL supplied with Visual Studio .NET is hard to read and debug. Is there anything to make it easier to understand?
Common Debugging Question: What additional C# compiler options will help me with my proactive debugging of managed code?
Common Debugging Question: What additional compiler and linker options will help me with my proactive debugging of native code?
Common Debugging Question: When should I freeze upgrades to the compiler and other tools?

Debugging War Story: A Career-Limiting Move
Debugging War Story: Disappearing Files and Threads
Common Debugging Question: Why do you always put the constants on the left-hand side of conditional statements?

Why Isn't There a Chapter on .NET Debuggers?
Common Debugging Question: How can I protect my Win32 program from being debugged?
Common Debugging Question: My boss is sending me so much e-mail that I can't get anything done. Is there any way I can slow down the dreaded PHB e-mail?

Common Debugging Question: Can Visual Studio .NET also debug regular ASP Web applications?

Common Debugging Question: How can I break only when a specific thread calls a method?
Common Debugging Question: Is there any way I can see the flow of operation in a managed application in the debugger?
Common Debugging Question: When debugging XML Web services, I get exceptions indicating the operation has timed out. What can I do?

Common Debugging Question: Is there a way to set the thread name in native code?
Common Debugging Question: Has the 255-character debug limit problem been fixed?
Common Debugging Question: How do I set breakpoints in DLLs that aren't loaded yet?
Debugging War Story: What can go wrong in GlobalUnlock? It's just a pointer dereference.

Common Debugging Question: How can I change the command-line argument to my process when it's opened in WinDBG?
Common Debugging Question: Some of my C++ names are gigantic. Is there any way I can get WinDBG to help so that I don't get carpal tunnel syndrome from typing them each time?
Common Debugging Question: The Win32 API functions that create handles, like CreateEvent, have an optional name parameter. Should I be assigning a name to my handles?

Common Debugging Question: Are there any tricks to debugging macros and add-ins that are written in managed code?
Common Debugging Question: I have an assembly that's loaded only in my add-in. Do I have to install it in the global assembly cache (GAC)?
Common Debugging Question: Are there easier ways of debugging add-ins since they can load into the IDE that you're using to debug?

Debugging War Story: The Case Against catch (...)
Common Debugging Question: Is there anything you can do to fix blown stacks from infinite recursion?

Debugging War Story: Saving Some Jobs
Debugging War Story: The Deadlock Makes No Sense
Common Debugging Question: If ReturnAddress is now available, why didn't you use it instead of going to all this trouble?
Debugging War Story: Uncommitted Transactions with Pooled COM Objects

Common Debugging Question: Why do I need the debug C run-time library if I'm using an error detection tool like BoundsChecker?
Common Debugging Question: What are the rules for properly precompiling headers?
Common Debugging Question: How can I make sure I don't screw up my string processing?

Common Debugging Question: Can I check a process for a resource leak on a production server without installing any programs?
Common Debugging Question: Why do some function calls start with "ILT" in the Disassembly window?