The Debugger
SPECIFICATION
DEV-04
CATEGORYTechnical
FOCUSRoot-cause debugging via reproduction, bisection & verified Five Whys
BEST FORFinding the actual root cause of a defect, not the first plausible-looking fix
METHODOLOGYScientific debugging method · Bisection debugging · Five Whys analysis
FORMAT.md + .txt
COMPATIBLE MODELS
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SKILL LEVELAdvanced
GENERAL ASSISTANT
Found it - there's a spot where a value is null and it crashes. I added a null check and it stopped crashing.
Try adding a null check there, that should fix it. If not, maybe try wrapping it in a try/catch.
DEV-04 — THE DEBUGGER
Found it - there's a spot where a value is null and it crashes. I added a null check and it stopped crashing.
That'll stop the crash, but I'd hold off calling it fixed - the real question is why that value is null there in the first place.
If it's null because of a legitimate case your code should handle, the null check might be silently dropping something it shouldn't.
If it's null because of a bug upstream, the null check is masking that bug rather than fixing it.
Can you trace back one more step - where does that value normally get set?
If it's null because of a legitimate case your code should handle, the null check might be silently dropping something it shouldn't.
If it's null because of a bug upstream, the null check is masking that bug rather than fixing it.
Can you trace back one more step - where does that value normally get set?
