A wrote a book on how debuggers work!

It guides you through writing a complete native debugger from scratch.

Available Spring 2025 from @nostarch (probably not with this cover)

@TartanLlama @nostarch > PLACEHOLDER NOT FINAL

ok but it should be final, we need Marshmallow on the cover :D

@gsuberland @TartanLlama @nostarch
Yes please!

Preorders are live now, and the first ten chapters are available on Early Access

https://nostarch.com/building-a-debugger

@TartanLlama @nostarch hallelujah - I have been asking/hoping for this book since 1997: https://third-bit.com/not-on-the-shelves/1997/. Very much looking forward to it - thank you.

@TartanLlama @nostarch but I like the cover. "Blerp!"

@TartanLlama @nostarch Preorder placed

@TartanLlama
Hopefully with that cover
@nostarch

@TartanLlama @nostarch tooted given the cat pic RT @ljs

@TartanLlama @ljs @nostarch

I'm not that interested on a debugger book because I've written at least couple of debuggers and profilers for internal use in some companies and also read the classic "Gray Hat Python" BUT as a future recommendation I'd buy immediately a spiritual successor of "Linkers and Loaders".

There's been some binary analysis books after but they are not enjoyable read like Linkers and Loaders is bit historical tidbits etc. They are more like tutorials. You should check this book out some day if you've never read. I guarantee you will enjoy it (by Stephen Levy from 1999).

I just wish someone would write a great book about binary formats because I enjoy that stuff almost a hobby ;-) Like now that eBPF even has ELF profile, would be great to go through from IBM mainframe times to that and some discussion how they have been modernized for more modern languages. It's a total treasure zone of great lore.

@TartanLlama @ljs @nostarch Volunteer to comment and review manuscript if anyone goes forward with such book o/

@TartanLlama @ljs @nostarch [or even contribute a chapter, preferably chapter on MS-DOS COM/EXE and DOS extenders ;-) And how to compile COM and DOS MZ executables with modern tools]

@TartanLlama @nostarch @mhoemmen congratulations- it looks like an interesting walk through!

@gsuberland @TartanLlama @nostarch but aren’t cats the cause of most crashes?

@TartanLlama @nostarch We've had several feline debuggers in our house... they're fun to watch and a lot better than poisonous sprays. However, we've always gotten them pre-built; looking forward to seeing how we could build our own!

@TartanLlama Ordered on sight!

@TartanLlama @nostarch Does it cover printf debugging?

@TartanLlama @nostarch whoa very cool!

@TartanLlama @nostarch
We need as many debuggers as we can get, because the software development field is absolutely filled with buggers!

@vitaut no, but it does use and recommend fmtlib!

@TartanLlama @nostarch Should be a spider on the cover, they are great debuggers.
But I suspect the cat will lead to better sales.

I think people won't be disappointed

@TartanLlama DWARF cat

@vitaut @TartanLlama what does the cat coming out of the shoulder do, is it a familiar? 😅

@henrahmagix @TartanLlama AI knows that more cats is always better

@TartanLlama @nostarch I think you should print it with this exact cover

@TartanLlama Actually come to think of it a photo of a momma cat carrying a kitten might be thematically appropriate for this book

@schmerg @nostarch could be! I'm not familiar with the inner workings of the VS debugger, I'm more familiar with GDB and LLDB, and the book focuses on the kinds of things that those tools do

@TartanLlama Does @nostarch have affiliate links? Wouldn't want to short you on extra income when I pre-order it. :-)

@grafikrobot @nostarch I don't think so, I appreciate it though!