Re: What's more important optimisations or debugging?

Ryan H wrote:

The question refers to debugging features in a toolsuite. When
choosing a set of tools for a particular project would you place more
emphasis on finding a compiler/IDE combination that makes for easy
accurate debugging or finding one [compiler] that can produce the most
optimal code?

As with all such questions, the answer is that it depends. In this case, it depends on the particular project. Is it a quick-n-dirty hack on a platform you've never worked on before, but can assume is amply powerful enough for the job, so optimal code doesn't make a difference, but getting the job done quickly would? Or is it a tight squeeze of a hard problem into a small controller you already know, where you need all the help you can possibly get to make it fast, deadlines be banned?

As any handyman could tell you, it's primarily the job that decides what tools you need, with personal preferences a distant second. The best hammer money can buy won't help you turn a screw.

And then of course, there's always the remote chance that you could get a toolchain that's damn near perfect both at debugging *and* at optimization.

I know it's more complicated than it seems but sometimes you have to
step away from the details and just look at the big picture, that's
what I'm trying to do here.

The only big picture to be had here is that there is no such thing as a big picture. The world of engineering consists entirely of small pictures.
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