When I first started programming, I used print statements. Having to write this book, I took a look at some of my earliest code samples, and it turns out that most of it was commented out print statements used for checking the value of variables. Note that I started off writing C using Notepad, and compiling all that through the command line, so no green run button and no IDE. I knew about GDB, but it was so hard to even set a simple breakpoint that I stuck to my print statements. Most of the bugs I had encountered so far had been obvious bugs staring at me in the face. After a few mishaps, I started to print everything that I could so that I could take a look at where the program was and what was happening, making sure not to underestimate bugs or the extent of my own stupidity.

In this chapter, we are going to be talking about PyCharm's powerful debugging tools and use them...