Debugging Expression Engine

Hello. I have used codeigniter for a few projects. I had problems debugging codeigniter I set up the config variables as proposed in another forum post and turned routing off. Still I received and error that it would not resolve the url.

I am coming back to codeigniter and want to use Expression Engine for my “baby” project. I may hire someone but I want to get my hands dirty in the code so I can experiment with the functionality of the modules. That way I will know what this great piece of software is capable of. I really like the idea of tags that hook into the system.

I will be running the expressionengine demo version concurrently and was wondering if some more experienced developers could give me some pointers as to debugging best practices and howto’s. I miss coding in C++, it has been a bit rough transitioning to a web development environment. Does anyone use unit testing instead of xDebug? Thanks.