[quote]… but it did elicit a very interesting discussion. The Java and scripting language crowd (Perl, Python, etc.) frequently said that they almost never used debuggers
and wondered why they are such a big issue. The C and C++ crowd, on the other hand use debuggers all the time due to the low - level nature of the languages. Because
most Mac Applications are coded in C, C++, or Objective-C, we do have a need for debuggers, but there are no other techniques to employ.[/quote]
Thanks for highlighting some of your views 
I recently had an extremely long conversation with a classmate I knew from way back. When he was a hard core programmer he told me stories of how he masterfully utilized perl to quickly prototype and test ideals. His voice changed in excitement with the mention of interpreted languages (and exponentially changed when using scripting languages in a unix environment). However this same person is a master at compiled languages. After reflecting on my conversation with him it seems the trend is that developers are using the compiled languages for the implementation but switching hats to the interpreted languages to actually use the application and test things out. Not testing in terms of debug… but user experience, immersion, etc. The scripting crowd as you mention may be on to something… just build a freakin prototype and have fun with it…