Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Help with Release/Debug

Author: Heiko Mikala

Date: 14:33:49 06/13/99

Go up one level in this thread


On June 13, 1999 at 13:00:35, James Robertson wrote:

>I have not compiled a debug version of my program in a long while, and while I
>was testing my program yesterday discovered the disturbing fact that, while my
>debug mode plays 1/2 the speed of the release mode, it plays better.
>[...]
>My question is: could someone please provide me with some debug/release theory
>under MSVC and what the differences are? It might really help me discover where
>the other two bugs are.

Hi James!

These bugs, which only occur in the release version, but not when you try to
find them in the debugger are the worst, right? They can drive you mad, really.
I encountered many of them at work during the last years, but I can only
emphasize, what Mr. J. Wesley Cleveland said in his answer: The main difference
between the debug and the release version of a program in VC++ is, that in the
debug version all unititialized data and arrays are initialized to zero (or
false, or NULL or whatever it is). So, when you intended to initialize something
to zero, but forgot to do it, the debugger does it for you, but the release
version not.
So, to say it the other way round: whenever a bug disappears using the debugger,
go searching for unitialized data!


Greetings,

Heiko.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.