Meaning of confessional debugging | Babel Free

Definitions

The debugging technique wherein a programmer explains a problem to someone else, and in the process realizes the source of it.

informal, rare, uncountable

Examples

“Talk to someone else about the problem. Some people call this “confessional debugging.” You often discover your own error in the act of explaining it to another person.”

“There are two more bits of strategy you might want to consider. Many programmers find “confessional debugging” to be one of the most useful techniques around. Confessional debugging works something like this: you grab your printouts and go into the next cubicle, interrupt the programmer working there, and say, […]”

“If you have worked at a help desk, you have probably experienced the phenomena^([sic]) known as “confessional debugging.” A person is explaining the problem and as they do so, it suddenly dawns on them what the problem is. The act of explaining the code to someone makes you think a little more clearly, not skip steps, and so on. Confessional debugging is surprisingly effective.”

“Programmers call the computer equivalent "confessional debugging." "Hey, Eric, can you look at this code? I can't understand why it doesn't--oh! Never mind."”

CEFR level