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It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

erikbern.com

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Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#101

Post by hinkley »

bityard wrote: post #50
photonthug wrote: post #44

> “Humans learn from examples, not from “core concepts” Nitpicking maybe but I disagree with tfa on this point; not all humans work this way. Those of us who might actually prefer the general -> specific direction are already largely ignored in k12 and may only begin to thrive in higher education. Since we’re already kind of underserved, there’s no need to also deny that we exist!

Maybe I'm dimmer than the average techie, but I need both. Much of my current job is frustrating because it's a big company and every new task I encounter is presented with only an example of how the previous person did it. Instead of, "This is what we're trying to achieve, this is how the thing works, this is how we do it," all that ever gets exposed to ICs is the "this is how we do it" part. This makes it impossibl…

I had a coworker who was good at making us yearn for an endless sea, but he quit and went into education.

I thought he was nuts at first but he’s been promoted twice since then and it kinda tracks.

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#102

Post by myworkinisgood »

powersnail wrote: post #69

People learn things differently. I really need the "core concept" first, before diving into examples, (unless the core concept is extremely simple). Many tutorials are like hand-holding Lego building. Here's your Lego pieces, watch me and follow me in building this toy project, and you'll know how to Lego at the end of the day. I just don't function very well in this model. I want to know how and why decisions are ma…

That's why there are four axes of documentation.

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#104

Post by gomerspiles »

myworkinisgood wrote: post #102
powersnail wrote: post #69

People learn things differently. I really need the "core concept" first, before diving into examples, (unless the core concept is extremely simple). Many tutorials are like hand-holding Lego building. Here's your Lego pieces, watch me and follow me in building this toy project, and you'll know how to Lego at the end of the day. I just don't function very well in this model. I want to know how and why decisions are ma…

That's why there are four axes of documentation.

Sounds like you have an explanation of how painful documentation is.. But how do these axes work?

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#106

Post by smaddox »

998244353 wrote: post #81
odieldomanie wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn't the IDE, but that we are still using a programming language 24 years old.

What does a more recent language offer that C# doesn't and that would enable more powerful IDEs?

Verified pre and post conditions would be nice. Especially in the era of LLM's, which can usually fill in the implementation given a sufficiently clear specification.

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#107

Post by wmanley »

gomerspiles wrote: post #104
myworkinisgood wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why there are four axes of documentation.

Sounds like you have an explanation of how painful documentation is.. But how do these axes work?

Possibly the gp means the four quadrants (two axes)?:

https://dunnhq.com/posts/2023/documentation-quadrants/

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#108

Post by fragmede »

gomerspiles wrote: post #104
myworkinisgood wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why there are four axes of documentation.

Sounds like you have an explanation of how painful documentation is.. But how do these axes work?

> There are 4 types of documentation, laid out on two axis:

> Learning vs. Doing > Practical vs. Theoretical

-tutorials

-how-to guides

-discussions

-reference

https://docs.divio.com/documentation-system/

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#109

Post by EnigmaFlare »

remoquete wrote: post #21
EnigmaFlare wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visual Basic in VS has aggressive autocomplete and it gets pretty annoying. You often want to write things in a different order and end up having to delete the auto-inserted endif/quotes/brackets/variable names (if it's not yet declared, it changes it to become something else that is), etc.

Oh, you still code in Visual Basic? Fascinating. May I ask what's the use case and how are you finding coding in VB these days?

[dead]

Re: It's hard to write code for computers, but it's harder to write code for humans

#110

Post by teddyh »

To interpret the headline literally: Writing code for humans is actually relatively easy; it’s called “literature” (or “technical writing”). What’s hard is writing code (for computers) which is also easy for humans to understand. Anyone who has written polyglot code knows the enormity of the challenge, but also knows the tricks to make it work. I.e. you have to do a lot of things which means something to one “reader”, but is meaningless to the other, and vice versa. For example, variable names are meaningless to the computer, but very important to humans. And so on.
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