Debugging or Troubleshooting? #4

Posted September 13, 2018 by ilee

A student says their computer crashed and they get this screen [image].  

           

 

The Challenge

Is this a debugging issue or a troubleshooting issue?  Please put your answer and an action you would take in a comment below.

Winner

This is a very tricky one!  It is actually a debugging problem.  (There is something causing a problem in the code)

We sometimes call this the "overpopulation problem" - it happens when you've asked StarLogo Nova to create too many agents....  Here's the code that was in the Helicopter agent's page:

What happened was that on collision between Helicopter and Hana, 3 more Hanas are created, which causes 3 more collisions, which each cause 3 more Hanas (etc.), so in the span of just a few seconds, the agent count goes to well over 100,000 and this slows the browser window to a crawl. That error message "Page Unresponsive" means the program on the page is taking so long to run that it isn't responding to user input.

Generally if you see this error, it means that there are either so many agents that the computer can't handle it, or there's a 'repeat' or 'while' block that is in an infinite or super-long loop.

So, this isn't a "bug" exactly, but a result of StarLogo Nova being willing to follow whatever instructions are given to it, even if those instructions result in something the computer can't actually handle. We can debate whether or not that's a good idea for beginners, but for now you can congratulate the students on successfully writing a program that will crash the browser =).

Comments

Submitted by mgrow on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

troubleshooting

Answer

Submitted by kweidle on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

Troubleshooting

Answer

Submitted by calston4 on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

Troubleshooting. The issue is with the entire computer, not the code.

Answer

Submitted by wkluesner on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

troubleshooting - internet connection could have been lost.

Answer

Submitted by jesalazar on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

Needs to refresh

Answer

Submitted by carodon21 on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

troubleshooting

Answer

Submitted by skoroneos on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

Troubleshooting, this is an issue with the computer or network.

Answer

Submitted by ccorey on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:20 · Permalink

Could it be just a loss of internet or that the internet app is not responding ?

Answer

Submitted by ameek on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:21 · Permalink

troubleshooting. wifi down?????  Not sure.

Answer

Submitted by jkdiru on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:21 · Permalink

Troubleshooting - connectivity issue 

Answer

Submitted by tracyeefoster on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:21 · Permalink

Troubleshooting.  The task is not running efficiently or a memory issue with the computer. 

Answer

Submitted by philolona on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:21 · Permalink

Troubleshooting internet or maybe debugging because the student may have to many variables?

Answer

Submitted by pwilsonscience on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:22 · Permalink

troubleshooting, but since it's tricky maybe debugging too

Answer

Submitted by tracyeefoster on Sat, 09/22/2018 - 13:23 · Permalink

so it was a memory issue right.  but a starlogo memory issue.  so it is considered debugging?

Answer