Programming

My primary languages are Java (for work), Javascript (for work), and C/C++ (for hobbies). Earlier in my career, I used to use the debugger a lot to help figure out what's going on when my applications were running, but I really don't reach for it as a tool anymore. Now, I'll typically gravitate towards either logging things (at a debug level that I can turn on and off at runtime) or I'll write tests to help me organize my thoughts, and expectations

I don't remember when, or if ever, I made the deliberate decision to switch my methodology, but I feel like the benefit of doing things in logging or tests gives me two things. 6 months later, I can look back and remind myself that I was having trouble in that area; it can remind me how I fixed it too. Those things also can serve as a sanity check that if I'm changing things in that area, I don't end up breaking it again (at least breaking it in the same way)

With that said, I will reach for the debugger as a prototyping tool. IntelliJ IDEA (and probably other Java debuggers) allow you to execute statements on-the-fly. I'll run my app up to the point where I know what I want to do, but don't know exactly how to do it. Being able to run my app up to the point of that, then pause it and get to try different statements to see what comes back has sped up my development pretty well. Logging or testing don't really apply for that kind of exploration, and pausing to run arbitrary statements beats the other options in how quickly and minimally that exploration can be done