Debugging Python

Contents:

• Introduction
  • The four steps of debugging
  • Debugging is the art of identifying inconsistency between the expected and actual operation
  • Ommitted topics, but that could have been covered:
• Python features relevant for debugging
  • Python is an interpreted language
  • Datatypes – strongly and dynamically typed
  • Scoping
    • Mutable vs immutable datatypes
    • Functions can have default arguments
  • Memory management
  • Dependency issues
    • Virtual environments
    • Working with packaged python code
  • Error Messages
• Defensive Programming
  • Reporting (un)expected state
  • Checks while writing
  • Divide and conquer
  • Document well
• The Python Debugger
  • Watching variables
  • Pdb in various environments
    • pdb with iPython: ipdb
    • pdb with jupyter
    • pdb with spyder
  • Alternatives for pdb
• Exercises
  • Ex 0. Try debugging divide_by_zero.py
  • Ex 1. Install double pendulum
  • Ex 2. Fix the broken pendulum
  • Ex 3. Defend!

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