Regression Isolation vs Code Diving

As developers we deal with regressions on a regular basis.  Regressions are changes that are introduced to a system that causes a potentially unwanted change in behaviour.  Engineers, being wired the way they are have a tendency to want to fix first, understand later (or understand as part of the fix).  In a large number of cases however, it is considerably more effective to isolate and understand the cause of the regression before even diving into the code to fix it.

This is a continuation of a series of blog postings I am making on regression isolation  and bisection, the first of which was  “A Visual Primer on Regression Isolation via Bisection”.  If bisection and regressions are terms that you don’t solidly understand, I strongly suggest you read the primer.

Continue reading “Regression Isolation vs Code Diving”

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A Visual Primer on Regression Isolation via Bisection

Identifying regressions via bisection is one of those software debugging techniques that I find under utilized and under appreciated in the software industry.  Bisection can be used to isolate changes in anything from BIOS updates to software updates to source code changes.  This article provides a backgrounder on what bisection is, and how it is useful in identifying points where a regression has been introduced.

This is the first in a set of three posts covering regressions.

Continue reading “A Visual Primer on Regression Isolation via Bisection”

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