Sometimes I start to feel like I'm pretty good at what I do.
Then I read one Raymond's investigations like this and realise I'm still not that good.
Then I read one Raymond's investigations like this and realise I'm still not that good.
I do that very rarely, and I only analyze the dumps of the programs I made. Of course, Raymond is way better than me at that, but I’m fine with it. People pay me to develop software for them; I only debug stuff when I have to.
BTW, couple years ago I wrote an article on the topic: http://const.me/articles/windbg/windbg-intro.pdf
He argued that most proofs really only involve one insightful step. Really difficult ones might require two.
The rest is just 'turning the wheel'; each step is just doing the only thing you can do. The point of practice is to make those steps obvious; to learn to turn the wheel.
I guess when it comes to looking at core dumps, I don't even know where the wheel is, let alone how to turn it because it's something I have never done. It maintains that air of magic to me.