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Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

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Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#51

Post by Yhippa »

tomasien wrote: post #47
Yhippa wrote: post #46

Tommy, I saw the domain name of this post and went to the main site. My suspicion was correct, you're from Richmond. I am too and went to Virginia. Awesome to see a Richmonder on the front-page of HN! I agree with this a lot. Just the act of typing it out is better (even if just marginally) than straight up copying and pasting especially early on in your career. There are some pretty complex tutorials for Java EE tha…

Were you able to read the blog? Is it not down for everyone? It's down for me. But thanks for the kind words!

I was able to read the blog (http://tommy.authpad.com/don-t-copy-and-paste-other-people-s...) but not the link in the OP.

I'll have to catch up with you guys sometime IRL. Really glad to find motivated devs in RVA.

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#53

Post by tsahyt »

This is so very true. Copy & Paste never made anyone better at anything (except for muscle memory in your left hand). For a while I typed out every single piece of code I used from the internet and it gave me a deeper understanding of what's going on in this code. I reflect on the code while I'm typing it.

I also do this with math these days. Whenever I'm learning a concept I'm writing out all the definitions and theorems, which gives me time to reflect on them and helps memorization. In general, writing is an excellent way of learning.

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#55

Post by tjbiddle »

It really does help - I had done this in the past, and I need to start doing it again. No matter how experienced you are, I think this would always be helpful as it can open your eyes to new ways of thinking about how to go about solving a problem.

That being said, word of advice: Make sure the code works before you start copying it, nothing is more frustrating then grabbing something OS - typing it by hand, then finding out it doesn't work (Granted, if you learned enough from typing it - hopefully you understand it well enough to fix it but you could have also picked up bad habits if it was broken to begin with.)

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#56

Post by to3m »

I've found a similar tactic useful for learning APIs: don't reuse example code, and don't reuse other people's code. Doesn't matter how annoying the API is - always write your code by hand. Re-type bits out of the code you were thinking of copying, if needs be! It's much easier to spot things worthy of note as you type them in than it is by reading them.

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#57

Post by pencoyd »

tomasien wrote: post #37
nollidge wrote: post #32

OK, so: > This website uses CloudFlare in order to help keep it online when the server is down by serving cached copies of pages when they are unavailable. Unfortunately, a cached copy of the page you requested is not available, but you may be able to reach other cached pages on the site. I'm probably being significantly thick-headed, but what exactly is Cloudflare even doing if it's not properly caching pages before…

Yeah, we're a little upset it doesn't even have a cached version. Ridiculous. http://tommy.authpad.com/don-t-copy-and-paste-other-people-s... If you want to read it elsewhere

Just reached out via email to the site owner with some info/tips. We want to help.

CloudFlare doesn't cache HTML by default, though you can enable that with Page Rules. http://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-pagerules-advanced-ca...

And the origin needs to be responding long enough for us to keep a copy in cache, once the Page Rule is enabled.

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#58

Post by manish_gill »

Recently, I've also started creating notes while studying something I don't understand. Just a small dev_project.txt file, where I type out bullet points about how I think the code is working. If after some time, reading it again it's taking me too long to get something, I just take a look at the notes. :)

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#59

Post by Buttons840 »

danso wrote: post #15

Don't have time today to provide citation but I believe the act of writing and transcribing involves a different part of the brain than reading...this is my layman's theory as to why writing and reading is so much more stimulating than just reading, even when you can easily comprehend the code on sight

It certainly involves the brain more than CTRL + V does.

Re: Want to learn to code? Don't copy and paste, type out other people's code

#60

Post by danvideo »

tomasien wrote: post #54
sidcool wrote: post #52

While the website is down: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.sho...

How the heck did CloudFlare not get this?

see what looks like CloudFlare's reply above... one needs to set up html caching
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