

Rubber Duck Debugging - teej
http://lists.ethernal.org/oldarchives/cantlug-0211/msg00174.html

======
mcxx
I heard a similar story. Back in the day, when computers were big and slow,
there was a debugging room in the Bell Labs. When a programmer had
difficulties debugging his piece of code, he went to that room and talk to a
teddy bear about his code and the error he's getting. This should have made
him realize what he's doing wrong. I don't know how successful the method was
for them, however it works often for me.

~~~
dcminter
"One university computer center kept a teddy bear near the help desk. Students
with mysterious bugs were required to explain them to the bear before they
could speak to a human counsellor." - The Practice of Programming, Kernighan
and Pike 1999.

It's a good book and a good technique. We used to use the director for the
same purpose at my first "real" job. He couldn't program but he was _really_
good at looking skeptical.

------
jonke
This has a own section in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. Chapter 3,
Debugging, Rubber Ducking.

However, even if I agree with the great use I really use it more for code
reviews than for actual hardcore debugging. (This could be my fault because I
use distributed async processes in my work)

I think the rubber ducking has more advantage if you use a high level dynamic
type language to code in (rather than more low-level C with pointers).

------
cdeutmey
Funny, I'm quite often the 'rubber duck' for other members of my team. I was
thinking of trying to find a way to get a cardboard cutout of myself that they
could pull out when needed.

~~~
ConradHex
I love being this guy. Great way to learn how different systems work, and it's
fun trying to find bugs or holes in other people's code. (Politely!)

------
timcederman
This is a great method. I always start writing an email to another developer
when I'm having a problem, and by the time I finish it I've usually solved my
issue.

~~~
jamesbritt
I've found that enlightenment comes right after clicking "Send".

