Is it focusing on the logical part or writing better quality of code?
Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
1–9 of 9 posts
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#2First ask yourself, which is more important, the turtle upon which you stand, or the turtle upon which your turtle stands?
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#3IMHO writing better code comes with time and practice. So what you probably need to focus on is developing your algorithmic thinking https://www.coursera.org/course/algorithmicthink
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#4First ask yourself, which is more important, the turtle upon which you stand, or the turtle upon which your turtle stands?
Balancing on the turtle would be a priority for me
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#5IMHO writing better code comes with time and practice. So what you probably need to focus on is developing your algorithmic thinking https://www.coursera.org/course/algorithmicthink
But developing the algorithmic thinking also takes a lot of time and practice. So ideally, what would be the best way to balance them both?
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#6IMHO writing better code comes with time and practice. So what you probably need to focus on is developing your algorithmic thinking https://www.coursera.org/course/algorithmicthink
But developing the algorithmic thinking also takes a lot of time and practice. So ideally, what would be the best way to balance them both?
You're overthinking it. Just program a lot, experiment with algorithms, read well-regarded books on both, and both will come.
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#7I always like this blog post about quantity vs quality.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/08/quantity-always-tru...
Doing a lot of code over the years on bigger and more widely varied projects, you learn to the value of better coding practices and readability, which is on top of a lot of skill doing many different things.
The main thing is your a beginner, don't bog yourself down on stuff you shouldn't do, unless you really have to. Work on getting things working the way you want and revisit them on how to make them better.
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#8It's neither.
The most important thing is to produce results in as little time as possible. You don't even know if you're solving the right problem most of the time. So you want to better understand what's the problem you should be solving before you spend more time trying to solve it.
The second most important thing might be to become able to recognize when it's the right time to change/rewrite code to be of better quality. Do it too soon and you're wasting time. Do it too late and it takes more time.
Re: Ask HN: As a beginner in programming, what is more important?
#9Get the concepts right, then find the perfect language (and maybe framework) and start building real-world projects.
Try finding a language that has some employment potential too.
Once you feel you've gained adequate exp and you are either using Rails or Django or Laravel, contact me and I will get you working on real-world stuff.