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Comment by kalipso | Hacker News Reader

wait isnt that just enforcing bad practice? doesnt python have proper debuggers with breakpoints ect? why in hell should i use a lib to print stuff just for debugging? i mean why not having a proper logging lib and pipe some statements to [debug] or whatever i dont get it.

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Requirements for logging and debugging are quite different. For logging I probably don't want to print the source expression, I probably want to include a semantic description. For logging it is also intended to live in the code for longer, so I probably want something a touch more readable.

The debugging and logging spaces overlap but there are definitely differences if you really start optimizing for debugging experience. I don't think encouraging bad practices is a problem if the code will be deleted before being submitted.

You are right with some points but i still see it a bit different. I disagree with the statement "I don't think encouraging bad practices is a problem if the code will be deleted before being submitted.". The thing is the deadline just needs to be shifted a bit and suddenly you have to commit code in a hurry. There will always be the chance that you forget delete something. A great example is this one: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/buffer-overruns-lice... low level code with debugging printfs nearly made it into the freebsd kernel.

I mean everyone prints something for debugging purpouse from time to time, thats fine. but having a lib extra for that. i dont think thats a good idea. Logging frameworks also enable toggling if source expression is printed or not. So you can only show it if you give a --debug flag to your tool for example.

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