Earlier quoted context omitted.
It reminds me of Nikola Tesla, "Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run m…
Huh. This is the first time I read this quote, but it resonates so well. Does anyone else program this way? I usually sit for a while thinking about the problem, write the program mentally, try out edge cases, sometimes rework the program a few times, then once I feel it's correct I type out all the code, with that phase taking much less time than the "mental work". I'd estimate my usual process is about 90% thought,…
Also, the domain is so large in programming, it is impossible for me to contextualize the entire set of edge cases. From remembering what exceptions to handle to library interactions, types, etc.. returned from various methods, it is just not really possible to think about even a small system this way (as in a system with 4-5 methods that perform real logic beyond "format this"
But, yeah - definitely large picture before I start to code. "Huh, yeah that calls that... ok.." but once I need to solve a problem "oh, this queue needs to be maintained this way... I need to compare these values against these values, oh, I need a second queue... I need to take this lock... oh this returns this type, which needs to be serialized so I need to figure that out..." - all of that stuff needs to be hashed out in a combination of paper & code. No way I can hold that in my head.