Live Debugging
Live Debuggers instrument execution so that you can
- capture some of the values over time
- add print statements in production and log the values the console
Time Travel Debugging
Time Travel Debuggers record inputs to a runtime so that you can replay the runtime after the fact
- see the application state at any point in time
- evaluate an expression at any point in time
- add retro active print statements
Instrumentation vs Record Replay
Live debuggers are similar to other observability tools in that they rely on instrumenting the runtime in order to collect useful data to show after the fact.
Time Travel debuggers rely on recording the runtime in order to be able to replay the runtime after the fact and collect useful data. e.g. ttd as a service