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One Way to Improve Your Coding

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Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#111

Post by thecupisblue »

stinos wrote: post #38

The most obvious way to improve your coding is to write more code. This is a bit too simple: writing more of the same, in the same style, usually won't cut it and unfortunately I've seen people being stuck like that for years: always producing more code, without any improvement whatsoever and instead just repeating the same mistakes. Once those mistakes become a habit they are extra hard to get rid of. So actually wr…

Exactly. I've found that my development skills leaped to another level when I tried out some functional languages. Since then my code is more readable, more concise and has less side-effects. Now looking for the next step.

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#112

Post by sundvor »

z3t4 wrote: post #41
stinos wrote: post #38

The most obvious way to improve your coding is to write more code. This is a bit too simple: writing more of the same, in the same style, usually won't cut it and unfortunately I've seen people being stuck like that for years: always producing more code, without any improvement whatsoever and instead just repeating the same mistakes. Once those mistakes become a habit they are extra hard to get rid of. So actually wr…

I want to recommend everyone who sit infront of a screen for several hours per day to invest a few hundred dollars extra on the monitor. The extra contrast makes a huge difference.

Ditto. I bought a 34" 3440x1440 a few years ago - the Dell U3415W. Not long after I made the switch to Visual Studio and C# about a year ago, I bought another - the Acer Predator X34, and took the Dell to work. They're just awesome for programming, as well as other purposes if or when time avails.

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#113

Post by Ntrails »

JoachimS wrote: post #98
mvindahl wrote: post #96

One point not covered by the article is how reading real world code will also help set realistic expectations, especially if you are a relative newbie. The truth is that there is a lot of code in the world, even in popular frameworks and libraries, which does its job but which does so in clunky or unreadable ways. I don't blame this on the developers, on the contrary it's my experience that any codebase will develop…

Good point. I'm always thinking my code is crap (it is) and inferior. But reading other code has made me realize that others code often has its warts too. The key is seeing others code warts (or lack of them) makes you identify your own warts.

As a self taught "make things that do what I want" sort of a coder, I am eternally worried about the things I don't know. Each solution is the best I could come up with - but I'm confident it's still probably shit.

So I often just wish I had someone to talk to about what i probably fucked up, or why it was a bad idea. For now my code is just littered with "I did x because y but I'm not sure if z was better or if there's another option I couldn't see".

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#114

Post by K_REY_C »

Ntrails wrote: post #113
JoachimS wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. I'm always thinking my code is crap (it is) and inferior. But reading other code has made me realize that others code often has its warts too. The key is seeing others code warts (or lack of them) makes you identify your own warts.

As a self taught "make things that do what I want" sort of a coder, I am eternally worried about the things I don't know. Each solution is the best I could come up with - but I'm confident it's still probably shit. So I often just wish I had someone to talk to about what i probably fucked up, or why it was a bad idea. For now my code is just littered with "I did x because y but I'm not sure if z was better or if ther…

Agree with this. I know there are sites that compete for minimum key strokes to compete a task in, say, vim -- is there anything similar for code? Is there somewhere people can post code and others can suggest ways to do it better? I think this would be extremely helpful.

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#115

Post by microtherion »

weeksie wrote: post #4

So this is a good place to list really nice codebases. sqlite is a fantastic piece of source code, totally worth reading.

It's a bit old, of course, but TeX: The Program is still a fascinating read because of the exceptional attention that Knuth has paid to exposition, especially for a program that size. Besides, TeX is still being used after almost 40 years, so it's inarguable that Knuth did some things right.

https://www.amazon.com/Computers-Typesetting-B-TeX-Program/d...

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#116

Post by microtherion »

weeksie wrote: post #4

So this is a good place to list really nice codebases. sqlite is a fantastic piece of source code, totally worth reading.

For historical kicks, it's hard to beat Lion's Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions'_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_...

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#117

Post by taeric »

stinos wrote: post #102
taeric wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you are wanting to achieve, to be honest. Writing the same code can help make you faster at writing that code. This can be annoying to people who are higher level coders, but the reality is that intrinsic quality of code is easy to complain about, but hard to model the importance of. In large because its importance is quite low. That is, if what they are writing works, despite having what could be seen a…

That is, if what they are writing works, You make a good point, but imo in real life there is more nuance to it than just works/doesn't work. Which again I've seen with the same collegues: the software works, sort of, yes. Despite some annoyances and known bugs and corresponding workarounds it does what it's supposed to do. But it's oh so brittle. So while you could argue that it works so there is no problem, in fact…

I completely agree that it is complicated. The whole debate is strewn with staw men, which does little to help move things along.

Still, fun to think about. If you know of any studies, I'm interested.

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#118

Post by dllthomas »

Ntrails wrote: post #113
JoachimS wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. I'm always thinking my code is crap (it is) and inferior. But reading other code has made me realize that others code often has its warts too. The key is seeing others code warts (or lack of them) makes you identify your own warts.

As a self taught "make things that do what I want" sort of a coder, I am eternally worried about the things I don't know. Each solution is the best I could come up with - but I'm confident it's still probably shit. So I often just wish I had someone to talk to about what i probably fucked up, or why it was a bad idea. For now my code is just littered with "I did x because y but I'm not sure if z was better or if ther…

Find someone to trade code review with?

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#119

Post by Ntrails »

dllthomas wrote: post #118
Ntrails wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a self taught "make things that do what I want" sort of a coder, I am eternally worried about the things I don't know. Each solution is the best I could come up with - but I'm confident it's still probably shit. So I often just wish I had someone to talk to about what i probably fucked up, or why it was a bad idea. For now my code is just littered with "I did x because y but I'm not sure if z was better or if ther…

Find someone to trade code review with?

Turns out all the real devs are kinda busy and don't have a couple hours a week to help all of us people who make their lives miserable..

Re: One Way to Improve Your Coding

#120

Post by dllthomas »

Ntrails wrote: post #119
dllthomas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find someone to trade code review with?

Turns out all the real devs are kinda busy and don't have a couple hours a week to help all of us people who make their lives miserable..

They don't really have to be above your level for the exercise to be valuable.
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