--- product_id: 12409442 title: "Software Exorcism: A Handbook for Debugging and Optimizing Legacy Code (Expert's Voice) First Edition" brand: "bill blunden" price: "£24.90" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12409442-software-exorcism-a-handbook-for-debugging-and-optimizing-legacy-code store_origin: GB region: Great Britain --- # Software Exorcism: A Handbook for Debugging and Optimizing Legacy Code (Expert's Voice) First Edition **Brand:** bill blunden **Price:** £24.90 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Software Exorcism: A Handbook for Debugging and Optimizing Legacy Code (Expert's Voice) First Edition by bill blunden - **How much does it cost?** £24.90 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12409442-software-exorcism-a-handbook-for-debugging-and-optimizing-legacy-code) ## Best For - bill blunden enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted bill blunden brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![Software Exorcism: A Handbook for Debugging and Optimizing Legacy Code (Expert's Voice) First Edition - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71jP7mTssaL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This one is REALLY good *by W***D on Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2005* Don't give this one to your programming team, they probably won't get it. Don't give it to this year's star programmer, for the same reason. Wait until you find that one kid that always has one more answer than everyone else, and especially the one that has one more question than everyone else. Give that kid this book.This book is about all that ugly stuff that people take pride in ignoring because it's "low level" and they're way too cool to do anything low. Memory has costs, CPU cycles have costs, they're wasted in different ways, and recovered in different ways. You find out which is which in different ways. That's what this book is about. Basically, it's all that stuff that was too pragmatic for your CS professors and too theoretical for the Computer Eng. teachers - i.e., what you needed and never got.This book addresses memory usage, stack frames, processor cache, loop fusion and strength reduction, all in down-and-dirty examples. It talks about debuggers, source control, and bug management - the facts of daily business life that coursework rarely addresses.If a junior zoomer masters what this book has in it, s/he might survive one of my favorite interview questions: Given only a C compiler, no assembler, and full compiler documentation, unwind the stack. If you don't know what "unwind" is, go away; if you read this book, we'll talk.//wiredweird ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Funny and nice book *by P***. on Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2011* Books about debugging that share experiences are amusing. This book is very interesting as it presents the debugging as an exorcism. In the catholic rite of the exorcism the priest demands the evil spirit to leave the body of the possessed person, this is the task we are faced sometimes in software development.Sometimes it seems that our software acts by its own and demands an exorcist to throw away the evil bug spirit that possesses it. It's a metaphor but very worth reading. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very good, but, Heisenberg is watching over him. *by K***N on Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2008* Very good! This is not only an amazing technical book but it's also a politician book about the truth behind the software industry. All I have to say is that you must read it before you even think about rate yourself as a "good" programmer. But like everything in life it has only one big problem. The author states that by using a debugger you run out of "Heisenberg principle" and it's not true! The effect that a debugger has on timing related problems is not trivial. Even made a debug build will change timing. Anyone who had problems with threads once in life, will know how hard is to debug a thread problem with a debugger (or debug build), just because as your program slowdown your threads may work fine and you will never know what's happening to your concurrency management. Debug without change timing only work for single thread process and only those ones that do not take timing on account to work properly. By the way, I must recommend this book; you will find a lot of useful tips & tricks on it! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12409442-software-exorcism-a-handbook-for-debugging-and-optimizing-legacy-code](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/12409442-software-exorcism-a-handbook-for-debugging-and-optimizing-legacy-code) --- *Product available on Desertcart Great Britain* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-02*