No label defined (Q4234028)

Bugs in computer software are at least troublesome, frequently however momentous and lead to noticeable economic damages. Debuggers are classic resources for the support of software quality. Beside the compilers they surely are the most frequently used tools in software development. The authors refer to Microsoft's WindowsNT with C++ 5.0 from Borland (meanwhile Inprise) and Visual C++ 5.0 from Microsoft. They describe comprehensively and with many details the sources of bugs appearing in practical programming. They describe many aspects of software quality and give guidelines for safe program development. In numerous and well documented examples they explain how one can avoid bugs or at least how one can detect them more quickly and more precisely. Integrated debugging tools are presented as well as external debuggers like PC-lint from Gimpel Software and the automatic debugging tool BoundsChecker from NuMega. In the last chapter the development of a small debugging aid is given to deepen the understanding of the functionality of debugging program. The book has 414 pages, is properly designed and easy to read. The extensive list of further readings gives an overview over the current activities in software engineering. A CD-ROM which belongs to the book contains the source code of the examples and 30-days versions of the commercial debugging tools used in the book. It is not a textbook for students, but more a debugging manual for WindowsNT. It is addressed to professional C++ software developers under WindowsNT and that people will profit from it.