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“Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

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Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#171

Post by perl4ever »

reikonomusha wrote: post #41
ncann wrote: post #14

That first reply is so funny to me because it hits too close to home https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 The more I do this, the more I gravitate towards the simple things.

Despite being a joke, I know it's the "Ha Ha Only Serious" [0] sort. I can't help but think this is severely biased by the trends of "enterprise software," where you eventually "give up", and clock your 9–5 writing if+for making a fine living, but erroneously pass that off as a mature, Jedi-like way of thinking about programming, like the meme suggests. (And, consequently, you spend no less time debugging hairy, nest…

The significance of off-by-one errors depends on whether you predictably get a runtime error on the first execution, or not.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#172

Post by throw10920 »

ncann wrote: post #14

That first reply is so funny to me because it hits too close to home https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 The more I do this, the more I gravitate towards the simple things.

Do you write your code in notepad or pico, or use brainfuck as your primary programming language, or copy your code to a new folder for version control? Those things are all the simplest in their tool category.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#173

Post by scubbo »

0xdada wrote: post #161
Ekaros wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't software engineering pretty much ifs and loops too? Massively complicated ifs, and looping pretty much samething over and over again.

coding is just ifs and for loops, computer science is just types, (to me) software engineering is a mix of those two

I like "Coding is to Software Engineering, as building a chair is to running a furniture factory". You need to know a fair amount about the former to excel at the latter - but the latter also requires project management, process and product design, collaboration, and communication skills.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#174

Post by mjevans »

jstx1 wrote: post #79
ncann wrote: post #14

That first reply is so funny to me because it hits too close to home https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 The more I do this, the more I gravitate towards the simple things.

- it's okay to use printing instead of a debugger - you don't need to write classes for everything - it's okay to write something in a more verbose way to make it clear for other people - your tools don't need to be perfect to get things done I need more of these, maybe some that aren't as reductionist as Carmacks's original post.

The really useful 'print' debug lines might be kept at additional 'debug' flag levels. This is particularly useful for tracing the behavior of programs that no longer have debug symbols and are running in real environments.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#176

Post by bonestamp2 »

dane-pgp wrote: post #127
ojr wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, at the lowest level its binary code, 0 and 1

I like to think of myself, actually, as not a code writer, but an author. I just use zeros and ones instead of words 'cause words will let you down.

I like that. Someone on my team referred to us as (data) plumbers and I thought that was a pretty fitting analogy too.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#179

Post by mro_name »

CuriousCosmic wrote: post #105
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you eventually "give up", and clock your 9–5 writing if+for making a fine living, but erroneously pass that off as a mature This comment sure indicates to me where you most likely are on the curve. In all seriousness, I think this is considerably off the mark. After enough experience you realize that expressivity and convenience are antipatterns and don't actually simplify things but are harbingers of complexity, b…

Personally I disagree. We should be using state machines and pure functions. If+for loops are just what's easiest to express in the major languages of today. they are no more or less computationally expensive but due to lack of tooling they are often cheaper to write. In languages and libraries that allow FSM and pure functional kernel based designs you can get just as clear logic that is expressible not just to the…

do you know some nice examples of medium complexity that you can show for inspiration?

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#180

Post by sabellito »

elviejo wrote: post #164

"First a punch is just a punch, Then a punch is not only a punch, And finally a punch is just a punch" (heard from Bruce Lee) Basically it means that in the beginning we punch like we can.. then a martial arts student learns the proper and different ways to punch.. so a punch is no longer just a punch... Is a lot of instructions.. Then to sheer practice and repetition the right way to punch becomes second nature.. so…

Trying to explain Zen by starting with "basically" is a bit ambitious of your part haha :)
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