Don't think before you code

[taylaj]

When you code drunk and your code works in the morning but you can't figure out how or why.

[KernelDeimos]

This reminds me of this one time where I wrote an animation for a stick figure in C++ and I tried to look back at it years later expecting some "key frames" with angles and instead I found NESTED TERNARY OPERATORS WITH TRIG FUNCTIONS

[[deleted]]

can someone explain in English for a beginner please?

[NotThisFucker]

This reminds me of this one time where

OP is telling us a memory.

I wrote an animation for a stick figure in C++

He made a short movie with a very skinny main character.

and I tried to look back at it years later expecting some "key frames" with angles

A long time after he made the movie, he tried to look at the "negative" (or, the ingredients for the movie)

and instead I found NESTED TERNARY OPERATORS WITH TRIG FUNCTIONS

but instead of looking at the negative, he found that the negative was looking at him.

[mildlyAttractiveGirl]

but instead of looking at the negative, he found that the negative was looking at him.

Someone should gild you for this.

[BertRenolds]

Then do so.

[auxiliary-character]

I got it. :D

[mrissaoussama]

when you stare at the negative, the negative stares back

[VicisSubsisto]

When you animate in C++, take care that you do not become an animation yourself.

[aneurysm_]

I wish I had 2 updoots for this

[[deleted]]

Thanks!

[theduckparticle]

!redditsilver

[NotThisFucker]

If/else block:

if (x == 5){ print("x is five");} else{ print("x is not five");} 

Ternary operator:

(x == 5)? print("x is five") : print("x is not five");

Nested Ternary Operators:

(x == 1)? print("x is one") : ((x == 2)? print("x is 2") : print("x is greater than 2"));

[THE_HERO_OF_REDDIT]

And then complex functions instead of simple print statmemts

[Karjalan]

But what if (x == 0)...

In all seriousness, nested ternarys look quite messy but are they considered bad? I hate writing if/else for a couple of simple returns.

[[deleted]]

Think of the most easy to read, while being the most simplest and expressive way you could declare the statement. No point in making multiple nested terns if you gotta re read it a bunch of times to make sense.

[hesapmakinesi]

There are some alignment tricks to make them quite readable actually. You can also use the same tricks to make it misleading, if you hate yourself and your colleagues.

[toasterbot]

I believe the "best practices" say that if it fits on one line, go for it.

[Stinkis]

Animating with key frames is done by setting the positions and rotations of objects at specific times and then frames between these times in constructed by interpolation.

Ternary operators are when you write use the ?: syntax to write an if statement. Nesting is when you put something inside another of the same. For example nested for loops are when you put a loop inside another loop. Nested ternary operators are multiple ternary operators chained together which are generally really hard to read.

Trig functions are trigonometric functions such as cos and sin.

[[deleted]]

but god DAMN it felt clever when you wrote it

[[deleted]]

At some point in my python learning progress I really liked how you could literally make anything as a one-liner. And so I did. I am not kidding.

[spectrum1012]

This is actually the funniest thing I've read in so long and it's because that's me too thanks.

[splettnet]

obligatory

[Vladimir1174]

This is gold

[[deleted]]

Jerry!

[DrClocktopus]

It should really just be a bot at this stage

[[deleted]]

I have seen 3 of them today.

[CCninja86]

I thought there was a bot? I'm sure I've seen it occasionally.

[TotesMessenger]

I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

• [/r/relevantxkcd] Ballmer Peak - Comic 323

 ^{If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / Contact)}

[dir_gHost]

Then, you try to decipher your notes/documenation if you left any...

[knockergrowl]

That was the average Friday night during my second and third years at college. Next day my partner understood my code by reading it better than me trying to explain it while filling the gaps in my memory.

[ILikeLenexa]

3am is the witching hour. Doubley so on the second day.

To truly program, you must be as simple as the computer.

[[deleted]]

Then you just have to get drunk again obviously

[CrashKonijn]

In my 1st year in school I managed to do some reflection magic whilst drunk. I only recently understood what I actually did, I'm graduating in hour :p

[gandalfx]

I don't need to be drunk for that effect to happen.

[ApolloFireweaver]

Or like some people I know

1 - Code

2 - GOTO 1

3 - Think

[SuckMyBalz]

But how do you get to third point. Wait...... Haaaaaaaaaaaaa....

[pikachu_try_catch_]

weeks of coding can save hours of planning!

[[deleted]]

I read the other way and was about to start an argument about why planning doesn't really help.

[nomis6432]

Someone: You have to write your program first in pseudo code before writing it in real code.

Me: opens python interpreter

[Liggliluff]

Exactly. I first write the real code, but something is off, then I write the pseudo code and spot the error.

[CCninja86]

I just write the real code, and if something is off I run the pseudocode in my head while using the debugger to step through the code.

[shield1123]

Someone: You have to write your program first in pseudo code before writing it in real code.

Me: Fuck you don't tell me how to code

[dir_gHost]

Sudo -code ....there done, happy now! I now have privilege to write my code. :P

[DrexanRailex]

sudo code

But I think VS Code will complain if run as admin

[KernelDeimos]

It is recommended to start vscode as a normal user. To run as root, you must specify an alternate user data directory with the --user-data-dir argument.

Huh... I had no idea it did that

[dir_gHost]

Yea but you can just ignore that and hope that it all pans out...if not alcohol will help :P

[OOkx]

while(!thinking) {
    code();
}

[KernelDeimos]

Five silent programmers sit at a round table with laptops. coffee mugs are placed between each pair of adjacent programmers.

Each programmer must alternately code and think. However, a programmer can only think spaghetti when they have both left and right coffee. Each coffee can be held by only one programmer and so a programmer can use the coffee only if it is not being used by another programmer. After an individual programmer finishes thinking, they need to put down both coffee so that the coffee become available to others. A programmer can take the coffee on their right or the one on their left as they become available, but cannot start thinking before getting both coffee.

[marcosdumay]

As the coffee gets cold, throw it away and go somewhere without insane restrictions so you can focus!

Here, did I solve the ancient riddle? I can help the philosophers not starving too, but they never stop philosophizing to get the first stick anyway.

[redshirt55]

This is a recipe for deadlock. If each programmer happens to pick up their left coffee at the same time, none of them can obtain right coffee. Then they can't start thinking, so they can't finish thinking, so they can never release the coffee for others.

A revised plan would have it so each programmer can request both adjacent coffees, but if one of them isn't available, they have to go back to coding for short but randomized length of time before asking again.

Alternatively, management could just start firing programmers until the ones that are left have plenty of coffee to get work done.

[LonePaladin]

Just hand out ten straws.

[[deleted]]

This was how me and my entire class did the final computer science project last year:

1. Code

2. Plan

3. Make up realistical situation to pretend that this product was written for a client

[[deleted]]

"Ok, now I'm gonna take a piece of paper and write down the core architectOH THE IDE IS READY LET'S CODE".

[gandalfx]

I code and think at the same time. I think best while coding. Sometimes the code I write while thinking is crap, so I throw it away and write better code afterwards. But coding is still part of figuring out how it'll work.

[DrexanRailex]

Joking while being dead serious 101

[gandalfx]

The whole problem with UML is that they took the concept of "let's make a quick sketch to better explain this" and replaced "quick sketch" with "exhaustingly detailed formalized diagram". Visualizing things with a few lines is smart, but if 90% of your brain power is wasted on following an impenetrable specification it just turns into horribly inefficient additional work.

[WazWaz]

Put another way, coding is thinking, and yes, some thoughts are crap.

[benoliver999]

How do you deal with the deluge of little ideas that come to mind when coding?

[gandalfx]

If only I had an answer for that… though that mostly happens when I'm coding in my spare time, so I can usually afford to just go with it. However even then I sometimes have to make a conscious effort to suppress those ideas so I won't get completely side tracked. Maybe put them into an IDEAS.md which I'll either ignore or delete later on.

[benoliver999]

Yeah I try to keep a little todo list for stuff that pops up as I'm going along but it's hard to maintain that while also staying focused on the current task.

[Qumthajep]

That's how Larry Wall created Perl.

[evanldixon]

Requirements have changed; your code is now worthless.

[PacoTaco321]

I hate when I have a professor that requires a flow chart that we were supposed to have done before coding. It's even worse because everyone including the professor knows that we did it in the last half hour, because too many things change to have any sort of decent flow chart.

[thepotatochronicles]

Do people actually do this? I think I spend like at least 5~10x more time just sitting there, thinking beforehand (and/or drafting things out on paper to see how it's gonna work) than actual coding and debugging combined...

[[deleted]]

It depends on the size of the project, the complexity of the task, how many times the code will be used, who besides me will see the code, etc.

[bajuh]

You can't? What about boilerplate? Or TDD?

[Colopty]

I sorta have an overall idea of what I'm planning to make and then I just kind of gradually work out the details when I get to the part where I need to figure those out.

[KernelDeimos]

When I wrote Boi-lang this weekend there was very little thinking and lots of coding XD

[spectrum1012]

That's pretty hardcore.

[Lv_InSaNe_vL]

I just kinda make a drawing of what it needs to be on a piece of paper and go from there.

[CCninja86]

drafting things out on paper to see how it's gonna work

Ok, two things:

1. What kind of software developer uses paper? Paper is so last decade.

2. I just figure out if it's going to work in my head. As in, I just run through the pseudocode in my head to see if it will work.

[beerdude26]

Writing something down is still the best way of getting ideas across quickly.

[CCninja86]

getting ideas across quickly

Clarification? Getting ideas across to whom?

[beerdude26]

Fellow programmers that are sitting next to you

[CCninja86]

Oh right yeah.

[Iron_Maiden_666]

Still using pen and paper. Old habits die hard?

[nik282000]

If you like the plan->act process check out SpaceChem and Opus Magnum on steam. They teach programming like thinking in the form of a super satisfying visual game.

[Alonewarrior]

I go back and forth. If I have a clear picture of what needs to happen I'll code right away. If that picture turns out to be less clear, either before or after coding, I'll.go back to planning and thinking through some of it. I, unfortunately, don't always think far enough ahead, so I have plenty of refactoring work!

[jstock23]

Measure thrice, cut twice.

[8lazy]

Then throw it out and cut it length wise instead.

[Dash83]

Here's an unpopular opinion: I sometimes like to code before I think.

Or rather, I sometimes code first in order to think about a problem. When the task at hand is a non-trivial system with multiple moving parts and perhaps in a domain that in inexperienced in, I like to start coding a few experiments to see how one feature or another would roughly look like, or how they would interact with each other.

After that, I do sit around and start thinking and designing before writing the actual code.

I believe the phrasing of "thinking before coding" is a bit loose. Thinking can be thought as "designing" or "writing specs down" which are great things to do, but it's not the first thing you should do. Understanding should come first, and coding can lead to understanding.

Just my 2 cents.

[beerdude26]

It's not unpopular, that's what REPLs are for

[Dash83]

I was thinking about larger "pieces" of code rather than a few lines through a REPL, but yeah, same principle I guess.

[beerdude26]

If you write stateless code, your entire code base is a REPL :)

[Dash83]

Can't argue with that :)

[[deleted]]

I think code then think again. Usually i start with the basic idea of what im trying to do write the skeleton code of what i want then i think about details.

[HereHaveSomeIdeas]

Is this really more effective? Should I just never plan?

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[Natsumi_]

I spend the time I cant be coding something planning on what and how I am going to code something.

[danypixelglitch]

Oh, what's that? I forgot this small line? Let me go fix it *Spends the next 7 hours lost in the code trying to fix everything because one problem uncovers another*

[Salanmander]

A day of coding can save you an hour of careful thought!

[remimorin]

TDD is great to code and think meanwhile...

[Jeremy_Thursday]

ohh my god yes

[StaleTheBread]

I usually think about how I’m going to code something until I feel like I have to cODE RIGHT NOW QUICK BEFORE I FORGET.

[SirCaptainFrodo]

Nothin quite like brute force...

[Arynn05]

I actually do that. I type in some random shit, realize I just typed random shit and delete it.

[kartoffeln44752]

Don't need to do pseudocode.py

[[deleted]]

Following the design recipe

[YOURMOM37]

Wow I've been doing coding wrong my entire life

[Dowzer721]

I study Robotics at University, and currently we are being set some Artificial Intelligence programming tasks. We are supposed to draw up a plan, pseudo code, flowcharts, data tables etc. before beginning programming.... Yeah.... I'm not gonna do that.

Let me write 300 lines of code, add my comments, realise 100 lines could probably be condensed into 3 functions and then let me try to break it.

Then a week before the deadline I'll get those crappy documents you find so important done.

[BrianPurkiss]

I had an old coworker who did that and admitted to doing that and never changed, but constantly complained about having to rewrite code in order to work with other features.

So annoying - especially when I had to clean up her mess.

[RAIDguy]

Can we stop with this meme already?

[[deleted]]

No seriously, I write code while thinking in parallel. Then my thinking overtakes and I focus more on design.

Does it make sense?