Subject:
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Re: A big hail to all of you.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Mon, 19 Feb 2001 02:11:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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728 times
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> Programmers have been arguing about this since the early 60's...we all
> know we'll never agree...I've *never* seen one of those debates end with
> one programmer saying "Wow - you're right - I'll completely change my
> programming style"...nope - never.
I have on at least one occasion asked a (better) programmer to explain
why he held a particular strong belief about coding style that I did not
share. Subsequent thought and experience proved him right and I changed
my
style accordingly.
In the interests of not starting a pointless war I am deliberately
witholding
specifics of the debate.
>
> We also like to argue about:
>
> Which computer is best?
> Which text editor is best?
> Which programming language is best?
> Which operating system is best?
At least partly because it's just fun...
> > As for me, I'm at the very beginning of this and I still have to think about
> > my tongue movements while speaking, so to say, but I felled the same way
> > when I heard the English language for the first time and knew I wanted to
> > learn it.
>
> Programming is not that special as skills go...but one observation I have is
> that it's something that's VERY hard to teach. You can teach people the rules
> and how to write programs - but to get good at it, you have to PRACTICE...LOTS
> AND LOTS OF PRACTICE!
It is a bit special. Some very intelligent people just can't seem to do
it beyond the rather basic levels. Personally I believe that even
ability
and practice do not suffice. Programming well is best learned by
apprenticeship - you need at least one (and preferably more) very
experienced programmers around to give advice. In my first programming
job
(I'd been programming for 5 or six years at the time and had half a
dozen
languages under my belt) I found it useful to just watch a programmer I
respected as he e.g. tested some code, so I could get the feel of what
he
was doing.
Take the opportunity to read other people's code, so as to be exposed to
a variety of styles, and maybe pick up some good ideas.
And my own rule 0 of programming: Do Not Do Anything Clever Unless You
Really Really Have To. Debugging is ten times harder than programming,
so
if you're stretching your brain writing something you'll never be able
to
debug it. Learning to keep it simple is what I regard as the difference
between my years as an amateur and my years as a professional.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: A big hail to all of you.
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| (...) Programmers have been arguing about this since the early 60's...we all know we'll never agree...I've *never* seen one of those debates end with one programmer saying "Wow - you're right - I'll completely change my programming style"...nope - (...) (24 years ago, 18-Feb-01, to lugnet.robotics)
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