1. Advanced Debugging With Visual Studio & OzCode
Omer Raviv
Co-founder & CTO

2. Every minute spent in the debugger is a minute squandered. Period.
Why are we here today?
Every minute spent in the debugger is a minute squandered. Period.
4/27/2019
OzCode

3. About Me Omer Raviv: Co-founder and CTO of OzCode
Senior CodeValue
.NET Open-source enthusiast
Passionate about developer productivity

4. A leading software company
About CodeValue
A leading software company
~100 employees: more than 90 technology experts
Provides high quality software development solutions
Turn-Key projects
Software development and consultation
Tailor-made courses and training
Fields of expertise include:
Desktop & LOB applications
Cloud Computing
Advanced Mobile & Web Technologies
User Experience (UX) & User Interface (UI)
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and DevOps
Embedded & IoT

5. Agenda
Introduction
The psychology of debugging
The debugging process
Debugging in VS2015
OzCode

6. About OzCode An innovative debugging extension for Visual-Studio
Simplify & visualize complex statements
Compare objects and collections
Search and filter collections
Focus on relevant data

7. My Journey as a developer

8. The Psychology of Debugging

9. Debug like a Boss Tennis Pro!
12/1/2014

10. The Psychology of Debugging
Elizabeth Spiegel
12/1/2014

11. The Debugging Process Overview
The two most common ways of using a debugger:
1. Wasting time
2. Quality time

12. The Debugging Process Overview
Wasting time:
Not knowing what your hypothesis is at any given time
Getting into a rot mindlessly hitting F10
Staring blankly at the screen
Praying for a miracle

13. The Debugging Process Overview
Quality time:
Know exactly WHY you started the debugger
Run it in your head first (rubber-ducking)
Apply the Scientific Method, religiously
Simplify the scenario, then write a test!

14. The Debugging Process Overview
Separate facts from interpretation
Wrong interpretation leads to a dead-end
Divide and conquer
Trap the bug in the corner
Use the right tool for the bug & the context
Isolate changes - do one change at a time
See its effect (fact), draw a conclusion (interpretation)

15. Sherlock Holmes’ Advice on Debugging
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
A Scandal in Bohemia, 1892 —

16. Use the right tools to decrease your Time-to-Aha factor
The bottom line
Debugging is HARD.
Use the right tools to decrease your Time-to-Aha factor

17. .NET Debugger Options Visual Studio
MDbg.exe - .Net Command line Debugger
WinDbg + SOS.DLL|SOSEX.DLL|PSSCOR4.DLL

18. There are some moments in life…
After which, life is no longer the same!
The first kiss
Your wedding
The first child
The first time you saw OzCode

19. Visual Studio 2015 – Lambda Evaluation in Immediate Window, Watch & OzCode Custom Expression

20. Controlling the Execution Context
Using the debugger UI, you can switch between processes, threads, and stack locations
Within the current context of the process and thread:
Moving the instruction pointer to
Skip code
Re-run code
Setting variable values that control the execution path
Expressions in if, switch, loop conditions
Using Edit & Continue – SO MUCH BETTER IN VS2015!

21. Setting New Breakpoints
Setting Breakpoints with Visual Studio 2015

22. .NET Performance & Debugging
Method Breakpoints
If you type a method name (without class name)
VS select all that matches
.NET Performance & Debugging

23. Visual Studio 2015 – Profiling While Debugging
In VS 2015 – Performance Data “in your face”
Performance tips
Performance graphs

24. Let the Magic Begin

25. Tracing with Tracepoints
Can print out any expression by surrounding with {}
property/field/method call
Special code can be used:
Tracepoint variable name
Meaning
$ADDRESS
Current instruction address
$CALLER
Caller name of current method
$CALLSTACK
The call stack at the current location
$FUNCTION
Current function name
$PID
Current process ID
$PNAME
Current process name
$TID
Current thread ID
$TNAME
Current thread name

26. Visual Studio Parallel Task & Parallel Stacks
View the logical call, the logical call stack and the task/thread state

27. Parallel Watch - View local variable in each thread’s context

28. Summary The debugging process .NET debuggers Controlling the debugger
The debugging loop
Make it fail
Make a hypothesis
Collect evidence
Prove or refine the hypothesis
Advanced techniques and tools
What’s new in Visual Studio 2015 C# debugger

29. Thanks!