3 replies to this topic

[Masood]

Hi there, I recently started learning programming and I was wondering if I was doing it the right way.
What I generally do is think of something I want to make, then search for tutorials or commands which might help me achieve this. Add them all together and try to figure out how I can combine and manipulate code into doing what I want it to.
The problem is, sometimes I understand HOW to use the code that I find, yet I do not fully (or at all) understand WHY the code works in that way. It sometimes just feels like I am messing around with things that I don't really grasp. A great programmer friend of mine told me that that is the same way he had learnt the trade, but I still wonder:
Should I research every tidbit until I know exactly whats going on behind the code,
or is it enough to know what I can get the code to do, and what I need to do for it do function (but not why I need to do this)?

Example I recently came across: I was trying to compile a something, wouldn't work, after some searching I found out I needed to link one library BEFORE the other one.. not sure why.. but it works so yeah.

What is the opinion of more experienced programmers? Did you research every issue thoroughly or did you take working code as granted and left the rest to figure out later?

[lespauled]

I did it a different way. I bought a book, and learned from the bottom up. I read it cover to cover. I would do the exercises, and put them in debug mode. Set breakpoints for the beginning of each function and go step by step. I would then make changes to the code, to see how it affects the different parts of the program. Along the way, I would come up with ideas for utilities that I would like to have, and I would build them. If it was necessary to jump ahead in the book, I would read that section, but I would re-read it when I to that section in my cover-to-cover reading. That helped a lot.

[WingedPanther]

You can learn the way you're going, but the reality is any way you learn always has an element of "we'll explain later, just go with it." It's worthwhile to dig into how things are working, but you don't have to understand EVERYTHING right off the bat. Heck, I'm still learning stuff, and I've been working on this for around 10 years, and got started 20 years ago.

[Masood]

Alright! Thanks for the replies, its nice to have some direction ;)