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Rubber duck debugging

In today's world, Rubber duck debugging has become a topic of relevance and general interest for a wide spectrum of society. From politics to science, through culture and technology, Rubber duck debugging has impacted our daily lives in various ways. There are many perspectives from which Rubber duck debugging can be approached, and each of them offers a fascinating and constantly evolving panorama. In this article, we will explore some of the most important dimensions of Rubber duck debugging, analyzing its impact in different areas and its projection into the future.

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A rubber duck in use by a developer to aid debugging

Rubber duck debugging (or rubberducking) is a debugging technique in software engineering, wherein a programmer explains their code, step by step, in natural language—either aloud or in writing—to reveal mistakes and misunderstandings.

The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer. It tells a story of a developer who carried a rubber duck and explained their code to it line by line.[1] Variations of the practice use other objects or even pets; teddy bears are especially common.[2][3]

Approach

Programmers often discover solutions while explaining a problem to someone else, even to people with no programming knowledge. Describing the code, and comparing to what it actually does, exposes inconsistencies.[4] Explaining a subject also forces the programmer to look at it from new perspectives and can provide a deeper understanding.[5]

The programmer explaining their solution to an inanimate object (such as a rubber duck) has the advantage of not requiring another human, but also works better than thinking aloud without an audience.[6] This approach has been taught in computer science and software engineering courses.[7][8]

On 1 April 2018, Stack Exchange launched an April Fools' Day joke called Quack Overflow. A rubber duck avatar appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen, listened to user problems, and pretended to type solutions, only to respond with a simple "quack" sound. It referenced rubber ducking as a powerful method for solving problems.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hunt, Andrew; Thomas, David (1999). The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master. Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0201616224. p. 95, footnote.
  2. ^ Debugging, Rubber Duck. "Rubber Duck Debugging". rubberduckdebugging.com. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  3. ^ Boswell, Dustin; Foucher, Trevor (2011). The Art of Readable Code: Simple and Practical Techiques for Writing Better Code. O'Reilly and Associates. p. 137. ISBN 978-0596802295.
  4. ^ Baker, SJ, The Contribution of the Cardboard Cutout Dog to Software Reliability and Maintainability, archived from the original on 5 October 2013, retrieved 9 February 2011.
  5. ^ Hayes, David (25 June 2014). "The Psychology Underlying the Power of Rubber Duck Debugging". Press Up via Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  6. ^ Byrd, Nick; Joseph, Brianna; Gongora, Gabriela; Sirota, Miroslav (2023). "Tell Us What You Really Think: A Think Aloud Protocol Analysis of the Verbal Cognitive Reflection Test". Journal of Intelligence. 11 (4): 76. doi:10.3390/jintelligence11040076. PMC 10146599. PMID 37103261.
  7. ^ Attwood, Jeff (2012). "Rubber Duck Problem Solving". codinghorror.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  8. ^ Malan, David (2020). "Rubber Duck Debugging in CS50 IDE". noticeable.news.
  9. ^ "Stack Exchange has been taken over by a rubber duck!". Meta Stack Exchange. 31 March 2018. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
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