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Debugging

Every software almost has some errors or bugs. Some are so big that they can break the whole system or website. Other bugs are small and unnoticeable.

A bug is a software error causing the software to malfunction. The term “bug” came from an actual bug in a computer hardware.

Bugs emanate from syntax errors, poor code validation, code neglect, and lack of code updates among other things. Debugging is the process of finding and fixing software errors and malfunctions.

Debugging can take less than a minute to days, weeks, or even months depending on the complexity of the underlying errors.

Effects of Bugs

Bugs have a significant impact on software and hardware. Some of these include:

Software lag and drag

Errors in the source code can hog memory causing the software or hardware to slow down.

High cpu usage causing overheating

Bugs can cause high cpu usage from never ending loops. This can overheat a computer.

Security vulnerability

Code errors can cause security problems. A bug can cause inappropriate string validation like usernames and emails causing data breaches. A bug can save the wrong username and email.

Bugs can be exploited by hackers

Distorted User Interface & Interaction

Bugs can cause the interface to be distorted, e.g wrong colours and text. They can send the wrong data to users, e.g a wrong answer.

High customer turnover

Bugs can result in high traffic losses leading to reduced customers and sales. They can make a bad impression on your website and business.

How to avoid or minimise bugs

Like said before, bugs are almost always there in every system. However, they must be minimised so that they don’t have adverse effects on users.

Code Testing

Every website or software must be tested before it goes live. This can be automated or real human tests.

We make sure we test our websites before they go live.

Designing code with problems in mind

Whenever we design our websites we use the “Worst case scenario” technique whereby we design code anticipating outrageous outlier values so that when normal values are put there’s no effect. For example, an input expecting numbers can be coded so that it anticipates letters or other strings and must avoid or filter them. In this case the letters are worst case outliers.

Code commenting

Properly commenting how a piece of code functions is essential in reducing bugs. Developers will know what and how to add and modify the code.

We make sure we comment and document our code so that all developers are on the same page.

Updating code

Browsers upgrade, systems upgrade, coding languages update. It’s imperative to also update code regularly to reduce code conflicts between new and old features.

As browsers update some coding methods and syntaxes will no longer be supported which can cause bugs.

We make sure we use the latest coding standards and methods to avoid bugs or website breakdown.

Logging Errors

Logging errors is a process of writing all errors that occur to a file. We can analyse this file to see where fixing is needed to avoid future bugs.

Reporting Bugs

We can implement a reporting facility where users can report errors and bugs they find. 

What We Debug and Fix

We can debug the following: