Oh, sure, if you want that, then testing is the process where you use the system (possibly pushing to limits) in order to discover the bugs, while debugging is the process how you get rid of them. An I think you can test a non-finished system as well as various intermediate phases of the projet, why not - or would you call that something else (suggest)?

Does that really matter how we call it?

There are 2 problems - how to find the presence of a bug (repeatedly, consistently) and second, how to find it's cause in order to get rid of it (I assume the "getting rid of it" to be trivial compared to the preceding tasks).

Of course, one should start with "embedding" as little bugs as possible (and the methods for that have been discussed widely here), but, tell me, who on Earth is so perfect?

Jasn Waclawek