Richard Carter

Computer Science & Game Development Student at North Carolina State University

03-10-09

Rubber Duck Debugging

under Software Engineering

(found here)

1) Beg, borrow, steal, buy, fabricate or otherwise obtain a rubber duck
(bathtub variety)
2) Place rubber duck on desk and inform it you are just going to go over some code with it, if that’s all right.
3) Explain to the duck what you code is supposed to do, and then go into detail and explain things line by line
4) At some point you will tell the duck what you are doing next and then realise that that is not in fact what you are actually doing. The duck will sit there serenely, happy in the knowledge that it has helped you on your way.

I am so going to get a rubber duck now…

-Ricky

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Sorry for the mess! I recently got hacked and lost my previous theme, so I'm working on reconstructing that. In the meantime, this theme is messy/broken but at least you can read my posts. Sorry!!

Hi, I'm Richard Carter! I use this blog to document particularly difficult-to-solve computer problems. My posts are written for clarity and keywords for search engines to pick up on, so that the next person that runs into the same problem will easily find my solution here and have an easier time than I had! I'm forging a path through the brush, so to speak. So if you came here by search engine, I guess it worked! Enjoy the solution to your problem.