Why would I start a debug build without debugging?

Question

Is there any benefit in starting a debug build without debugging (as opposed to a release build without debugging)? And what do I miss when I debug a release build (as opposed to debugging a debug build)?

Answer 1

Biggest advantages of debug builds (outside of the IDE):

• Assertions are enabled, as is other diagnostic code you may have compiled within debug-dependent prepocessor sections.
• Stack traces and variable watches are working properly, so you can have beta testers send you a crash dump and debug that in your IDE later.

Biggest disadvantages:

• Slow execution, higher memory consumption, bigger file size.
• Some bugs are not evident unless you compile everything with full optimization. That's because memory allocation is working differently in release builds.

Many companies distribute debug builds to alpha and beta testers and switch to release builds later.