• Debugging History: Debugging has been around since the early days of computing. The term "debugging" originated from a moth found in a computer relay in 1947. Since then, debugging tools have evolved from punch cards to modern time-travel debugging tools.
• Antithesis' "Multiverse Debugger": Antithesis was founded in 2018 with the vision of a better way to test systems. Its "multiverse debugger" allows for time-travel debugging, record and replay debugging, automatic debugging, and AI-assisted debugging. It works by creating a deterministic simulation that can rewind and fast-forward time, allowing developers to inspect weird states and bugs.
• Q&A with Antithesis co-founder, Will Wilson: Large systems have different characteristics than common systems, such as bizarre failures, higher expectations, more concurrency, meaningless timestamps, and being difficult to reason about. Antithesis is used in different ways by customers, and it can replace human effort in adding logging, designing fault injection systems, and chasing intermittent problems. The tech stack behind Antithesis is homegrown and includes languages like C, C++, Rust, Typescript, and Nix, as well as custom-built tools like a hypervisor, a fully-reactive browser-based Javascript notebook, a fuzzer, a fault injector, binary instrumentation, and a customizable Linux environment.
• Tech Stack: Antithesis uses a variety of technologies, including C, C++, Rust, Typescript, Nix, BigQuery, and a custom hypervisor. It has faced challenges with existing databases and has decided to write a custom database for its needs, which will be 100% tested with Antithesis.
• Engineering Team and Culture: The engineering team at Antithesis values building tools that do exactly what they need, and they have a "not-invented here" syndrome. They are cautious about building new technologies but are willing to take risks when they see an opportunity. The team is also diverse and includes people with different backgrounds and interests.