Python is a very user-friendly language that is easy to learn. New users can quickly write relatively complicated code that uses various libraries. Writing code can be an exciting experience, especially if it works and we can quickly see the result of our work. However, programming is not only about writing code that works, but also about debugging issues when the code doesn’t work. Unfortunately, many new users are either discouraged when getting errors or use inefficient ways of debugging these errors, e.g. using only print statements. The aim of this tutorial is to change it and convince people that debugging tools are very useful even for beginner and intermediate programmers. I will also discuss how to handle exceptions when writing your own software.
During this tutorial participants will learn:
- about various types of errors,
- how to understand Python traceback output,
- how to use Python debugger,
- how to write software that returns meaningful errors,
- how to report errors to open source projects.