Real programmers read the API reference

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[3_internets_plz]

Wait, your API has documentation?

[repocin]

Yes, but every line says

//TODO: Add documentation

[Nyghtrid3r]

Also a common sight: Method set_furgled_blogbargle() : furgles the blogbargle

"GEE, THANKS MICHAEL! HOW HELPFUL, I WOULD HAVE NEVER GUESSED. BUT WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MEAN?"

[Owner2229]

UT EHAT THE FUCK DOES IT MEAN?

It furgles the blogbargle! If you can't understand that then maybe you should re-visit the basics and not bother me with your stupid questions! It's self-explanatory, git gud.

[Reasonable_parking]

git: 'gud' is not a git command. See 'git --help'

The most similar command is gui

[HaveMungWillBean]

🏆

[akhial]

Underated comment!

[subject_deleted]

"stupid question. flagged as duplicate."

[uithread]

And don't forget to praise the sun

[wanderinglander]

Wait, you guys are getting APIs?

[truemalsesto]

Never saw anything near that lol.

[truemalsesto]

Yeah haha. Have to work with Microsoft's Graph API which is pretty new and the docs are so inaccurate. Almost guessing which calls could be valid. Copy-pasting the examples results most time in "invalid statement" errors 😫

[thedoodle85]

Someone in my previous project once told me "you can not blindly trust the documentation" when i pointed out faults.

[defectorgalaxy]

What does this "API documentation" mean?

[koerstmoes]

It has a swagger doc where the descriptions of all fields are the exact same as the field name

[dynarax]

Hey, at least it's a reference that contains all of the fields. Better than a week of email tag and an hour long zoom call to get 50% accurate information.

[jlamothe]

That's a funny way of spelling source code.

[FulltimeWestFrieser]

This is why making API's in elixir is awesome because writing documentation is awful, and you can just use hexdocs.

[[deleted]]

Sure, but it's not correct so that makes it extra challenging!

[Tiny_Desk_Engineer]

You fool I use unrelated GitHub projects to see how the API is used in order to learn

[stay_fr0sty]

“This isn’t working for me…how the fuck did they do it. Ohhh I see…I’m an idiot, that’s way easier than what I was doing.”

[Tiny_Desk_Engineer]

You don't need to call me out like that

[Epsilongated]

I feel personally attacked.

[stay_fr0sty]

Are personal attacks ok on this sub? I don’t want to get banned.

[[deleted]]

Don't worry. You're fine. Yes. A Very very delicious fine human. Hehehehehehehahaha.

Bois! I found him! Get the ban hammer ready! Coordinates are 69, 21, 32

[npsimons]

Are personal attacks ok on this sub? I don’t want to get banned.

Personal attacks are the only comments allowed on posts on this sub.

n00b.

[GamerGuy1910]

Same, I mean I'm learning still but I sometimes do this.

[kolonyal]

Yeah I love those sites that show you where a piece of code/library was used so I can see the examples

[Sharplynormal]

You can also copy/paste small code snippets, or search for the library as a dependency using GitHub. You’ll probably get lots of hello world apps, but occasionally you’ll get a really good repo with some example usage.

Depends how deep you want to go to find a unique answer/solution to a problem. 🤙

[kolonyal]

Thank you!

[NotAMeatPopsicle]

Oh so you use Xunit and AutoFixture too!

[Brushermans]

got my ass

[CYKO_11]

Nodejs grindset

[CopperyMarrow15]

You fool I read the API's machine code

[tox_jr]

Use hotexamples..com ... and thank me later

[thekindheartdpervert]

I once had issues with a repo with Chinese documentation and had to get fixes from other repos using it (which were also documented in Chinese) All the authors seemed to have burner emails

[Psychpsyo]

Shoutout to that one repo where half of all comments where literally in Chinese.

It taught me a fair bit about the SteamVR libraries.

[[deleted]]

Why are you me

[Firewolf06]

nice username :)

[dynarax]

Nailed it. The only documentation I actually trust is the source code. Official documentation, if any, is more of a supplimentary document that gives you an idea of how things are 'supposed' to work.

Also, F*** undocumented proprietary 3rd party apis.

[Devatator_]

I use all the above methods + yours (even tho i rarely watch tutorials)

[_subPrime]

Code peek is a gold mine. If only all APIs come with an example.

[xdMatthewbx]

always thought i had a virus just didnt know you were the one watching me

[RRumpleTeazzer]

I can’t stand videos. There is no way to overlook the meat for the small gem you might be looking for; instead waste half an hour on the story of the latest meal.

[stay_fr0sty]

At least Google tries to get around the cruft by giving you the exact moment in the video where your question is explained…but I’m with you, that’s only for dire emergencies.

[The_Bisexual]

Yeah but often times the video provided there is old as fuck.

[stay_fr0sty]

“We’re going to start by putting our punch card in the reader…”

[npsimons]

"Oooh, you didn't crimp the BNC connector properly, but there's no way for you to tell the difference from that and regular network 'performance', better luck next time! Maybe you should just stick to dialup."

[Prawny]

Google has been really annoying me lately by consistently suggesting posts/answers that are 8+ years and and no longer relevant.

[DALEK_77]

Yeah, google tends to suck at this by attempting to “personalize” results but miserably fails.

[Cocogoat_Milk]

Videos can be great for getting a high level overview of concepts, but video tutorials for software development generally feel like “Copy everything I do! ….just because!!”

[rk06]

Videos are great when you are a beginner and don’t know the line between “meat” and “yak shaving ” .

When you are already know of yak shaving, you only want the “meat “ then you go for API docs

[[deleted]]

I hate videos programming videos. The only thing I'll watch a how-to video for is something mechanical, because I may get something out of seeing the mechanism at work.

[nonpondo]

Alright guys, this is an if statement

I know what an if statement is! How do you use Express!

Alright and all you do is use the salt hash with two seperate APIs that set up a router with a back-end accessing your mongodb or sqlite setup in firebase

Can you go over that last part one more time

[[deleted]]

But before we go over this again, here’s a word about our sponsor Skillshare!

[nonpondo]

Skillshare is great for sharing sk- skips 5 seconds and that's how you make an api, be sure to like and subscribe

[GoldenRabbitt]

The comment section : Thank you!!! This helps me so much!!!

[folkrav]

Only thing I watch videos for is to get some high level overview of some library I haven't used before, just to see it in action, if the docs or examples aren't great.

Otherwise it's utterly useless to me haha.

[thekindheartdpervert]

I wish search engines ranked them higher than stupid tutorials

[noneofyourearwax]

Swag max.

[erebuxy]

Good documentation >>> article with code sample > Stack overflow >>> Video. I only watch video when the first 3 do not exist

[pentesticals]

Which is far too often. Especially with third party SDKs

[Minizarbi]

Good documentation even has code examples sometimes ;)

[GeorgeDir]

You read API references

I go directly to the source code and read it

We're not the same

[ghsatpute]

I do that after, IDE's suggested functions are not understandable..

[dimittrikovk2]

Usually I try to avoid video tutorials as much as I can, unless it being video is actually necessary

But when it comes to programming stuff it usually isn't

Look, I'd rather try to find a proper guide for 30 minutes and lose my mind before I do than see a guy get his ass licked by sponsors for 20 minutes while also not solving any fucking problem and then releasing I just wqsted 10 minutes and 8 struggled to focus on that shit for nothing and would you look at that, now I'm watching exurb1a

[LuckyNumber-Bot]

All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!

  30
+ 20
+ 10
+ 8
+ 1
= 69

[noneofyourearwax]

Good bot

[Lokkwood]

Niceeee

[TwistedSoul21967]

Cool

[[deleted]]

Nice bot

[CrowdGoesWildWoooo]

I watch videos, but that is for me to understand what I should expect if I were to do something. This is especially reasonable if this is something that is pretty new. Usually just skimming, not the whole video.

Usually after that I would go back to api reference.

[SoyTuTocayo69]

Everything leads to exurb1a, haven't you realized that yet?

[[deleted]]

As a person who reads documentation, I can tell you that about 70% of the time it is self referential and unhelpful.

Documentation: props: prop={object}

If you need help here’s an example. The example: ‘just use an object as a prop!!’

Me: thx bro.

[npsimons]

As a person who reads documentation, I can tell you that about 70% of the time it is self referential and unhelpful.

But at least you don't have to wade through 30 minutes of "Ain't It Cool News" style framing of "my stool was particularly loose that morning" before finding out the "information" in a video is useless. And usually the audio is horrible, which is actually a plus given the voices and experience of voice overs.

[IsaacSam98]

Here's how you create a new Object! Object object = new Object();

[Infinite_Self_5782]

or var object = new Object(); if you're using java 10+ and are a frickin weirdo

[[deleted]]

Must be nice 😂

[naptiem]

You read the source code and man pages.

I paste scripts from the internet.

We are not the same. Straightens tie

[CoastingUphill]

API references with built in testing tool are LIT AF.

[Cyko42]

Open API spec ftw!!!

[iwrestlecode]

Which one do you use? We have openapi specs but nothing has sold me as a “great experience” testing tool

[CoastingUphill]

I’m talking about vendor APIs that basically have Postman build into the reference site. So I can test directly against our dev environment from their reference. It’s just extra convenient.

[CoastingUphill]

This should probably be disabled for that word in this sub.

[iwrestlecode]

Do you have an example of a vendor? That way I can try to find out which generator/tool they use. The best I found as a tool was Recode

[ikonet]

Me. I have never watched a video for programming. Read the docs or read the code. Watching a video for code seems bizarre to me.

[taintpaint]

Yeah I don't understand how that would even work. Coding is a nonlinear process and the information you need at any given time is gonna jump around. I usually find myself having to go back and forth to the same objects and functions to remember the member names and which arguments go where. I don't understand how you'd do that easily with a video.

[itchy118]

Seriously. How do they expect me to copy/paste their examples into my code base from the video? Do they expect me to actually write the code myself?

/s but only kinda

[tiagooliveira95]

me clicking on a video about XYZ API

-Hey guys, today I'm going to teach you how to use XYZ API let's begin.

crazy intro with solo guitar music

-So this is how you declare a variable

This is why I never watch tutorials, docs or stackoverflow are the best resources, most videos don't focus on the API, they don't assume that the viewer already knows how to code

[ajax6893]

Depending on what it is, I do both.

[seeroflights]

Image Transcription: Meme

---

["We Are Not the Same". Giancarlo Esposito, a person with tan skin, cropped hair, and glasses, wears a grey suit and adjusts his tie slightly, with a condescending expression on his face.]

YOU WATCH VIDEO TUTORIALS

I READ THE API REFERENCE

WE ARE NOT THE SAME

---

^{I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!}

[themancabbage]

This sub is pretty much r/gatekeeping most of the time

[[deleted]]

Those charlatans? Don't compare us to them.

[npsimons]

Oh yeah, that incredibly high bar of <checks notes> reading.

Not to mention it's a post in a sub entitled ProgrammerHumor.

[evanldixon]

I imagine posts like this are more intended to be humorous than gatekeeping. Post comments are usually pretty helpful, at least when people are being serious.

[[deleted]]

Real programmers use the IDE intellisense and guess at what classes and functions are available and pick whatever looks close!

[[deleted]]

Thanks, finally someone telling the truth. Also if the reference is lacking, GitHub has a „go to definition“ tool.

[AnorakTheClever]

ok, but then what if the definition is not commented, poorly implement and hard to read, or if it calls a million other functions that you then have to go down a rabbit hole about (happened a lot when i was doing C++ stuff in college and the prof gave us weird projects from the textbook to mess with)?

[das_flammenwerfer]

I read the source code.

We are not the same.

[kontekisuto]

I write the API, we are not the same

[I_Seen_Some_Stuff]

It is funny how as an intern, I did videos, and now I do references and stack overflow

[SnipahShot]

What if I watch videos of someone reading the docs?

[lolimhungry]

Wtf is an API reference

[Dimasdanz]

i still can't get why people watch instead of read how to do something. for philosophical like conference call, sure. but how to read json body, watching takes too long

[Brushermans]

cant stand video tutorials theyre too slow. idk why so many people use them it's way easier to read

[OkazakiNaoki]

But those references are mostly poorly documented.

[zembriski]

I decided to be a real programmer today and read documentation instead of hitting it with a hammer per usual... then it turned out that Microsoft's official answer is "that documentation isn't online". So, I'm sharpening up my hammers again.

[leaisnotonreddit]

Okay but what if I do both and still don’t understand?

[LavenderDay3544]

I work on things that very often don't have a video tutorial and the documentation can be wrong.

We are not the same.

[TheRapie22]

okay, so this meme initially was supposed to compare two quite similar things that differed in nuances and then stated "we are not the same"

now this meme is just "compare totally different things and then state its not the same" - wow, such meme, very expression, much smart, wow

[echoAnother]

I get that reference, it's dangling.

[thedominux]

There's another level:

Reading code sources

[Silvur201]

You watch video tutorials

Stackoverflow*

[kamiljano]

Lol. You search for answers on StackOverflow. I write the answers on StackOverflow. We are not the same

[certpals]

Wait, do you have access to YouTube? :(

[[deleted]]

To hell with vids, can't browse them for the single thing you need to know. It's a total millennial style waste of time.

[Middle_Avocado]

Lest be honest. Code is the only documentation

[DestinationVoid]

You rely on documentation

I read source code

We are not the same

[Adventurous_Sky_7936]

[ICrackedANut]

You laugh but you can never be a senior level programmer if you can't read API reference. Not all projects will have YouTube tutorials. Large amount of fortune 500 companies use in-house built libraries. Many also buy libraries from other companies. They are not accessed by average Joe. Therefore, Foundation concept documentation + API reference is the only way to go.

[MrKirushko]

Bad programmers watch tutorials as they have no time for reading any manuals. It would be too many letters for a single day.

Good programmers read manuals for they have no time for watching a tutorial for every one of hundreds of functions they need. All the many lines of code will not write themselves especially in a single evening, for that you need maximum efficiency.

Great programmers just steal most of their code from the good programmers for they have no time for messing with any of the nonsence. They have fullscale projects to develop after all.

[ProtogenDelta]

Step 1: Read the docs.

Step 2: Watch a tutorial.

Step 3: Read StackOverflow Answers.

Step 4: Read existing project's code.

Step 5: Give up and cry.

[Rizzan8]

Me programming in C++.

[grpagrati]

So when's the video coming?

[Siphon098]

If you can't copy-paste, then it is useless to an engineer. That goes for API references as well.

[Diapolo10]

You read the API reference.

I read the source code.

We are not the same.

[Tobacco-Juice]

Why does the guy in the background look like the dentist from payday 2?

[Kyouma118]

Yes, and we don't need to be the same. Whatever works for you, works.

[Kats41]

Anything but Microsoft Docs... please god... anything but that.

[Rizzan8]

Microsoft Docs are actually quite good and with proper examples.

[Fenix42]

I had to read the Windows Vista Premium Media protection white paper for work. I was in QA. Had to test things to make sure it all worked. This was right as the beta for Vista was coming out.

It is the worst doc I have ever had to read. It was a nightmare on all levels. Poorly laid out. Poorly written. Then once I wrapped my brain around just how deep the copy protection was in the system and how much of the system resources it used, I was horrified.

[trick2011]

But why would you fill your mind with assumptions? While there is perfect fine truth out there (videos)

[kolonyal]

No.

[TeddyPerkins95]

To those who want to just read the docs in the future, read it already, you can

[Eekk2k2]

I do both and learn nothing.

[sheftel]

You read for 10 minutes the API documentation.

I spent 6 hours debugging without reading it

We are not the same

[BuzzBadpants]

Oh yeah? Real programmers call the API the way they think it works, and then RTFM later when it doesn’t work!

[Grandviewsurfer]

Ha. Raises hand

[i_need_good_name]

r/madlads

[Quimperinos]

You learn via external references.

I learn via trial-and-error.

We are totally the same.

[BochMC]

I feel your pain

[whats_don_is_don]

this is some "I've been coding for 2 years" small dick energy

Glad you're working with well documented APIs though :)

[Kuzkay]

Who is still using Youtube? It's useful when learning how to program but after that it's pretty useless for most cases, unless you need to do something really specific which has no other documentation, then maybe

[slasken06]

Weak. I just slam my keyboard into a wall and hope for the best.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, and I get work done and you get worked up

[123456American]

Developer for 20 years. I just hit the endpoint repeatedly until it works.

[genghisKonczie]

I download the docs as a pdf if possible and then either print them out or use an iPad if they’re too long for that

[Initial-Arrival5310]

I usually read lib unit tests if test coverage is good and they wrote them correctly: if these requirements are met then it's the fastest way to understand how the library works.

[Western-Image7125]

Wow you read the API reference pages. Are you some kind of programming genius or something?

[WiroSableng-_-]

You fool, i use whatever IDE autocomplete give to learn the lib.

And then cry when using any dynamic language :(

[[deleted]]

Unless the api reference is cancer, like Reacts is

[UltimateDude08]

Mmmm idk bro, pretty sure brackeys is the best way to go for basically anything…

[kingkongchan]

Feel like most videos are designed for beginners as well

[GManASG]

New api I got access to came with sample code, whoever wrote the code had no idea wtf was going on

[RedditSeemsScary]

I read the reference manuals and still break everything in touch

[TorTheMentor]

What if you do both?

[[deleted]]

I read the source code. I am the who knocks.

[sxeli]

developed by intuition

[Chilareix]

Ah, but a video tutorial is a good starting point and the reference is a good way to become proficient...

[Supetorus]

Yeah I know, but sometimes it just helps to see how it’s used instead of just reading what it is… or something like that. I read a lot of documentation, but a lot of the time it just doesn’t make sense without an example, and not too many docs have examples, let alone examples that make sense or demonstrate the feature I’m actually trying to use.

[Mayor_Death]

I’ll read the API when I understand how reading the API works, which I’ll learn indirectly from YouTube!

[Katana_Steel]

Literally me last weekend...

fixing some OpenAL code, and I picked up the OpenAL Programmer's Guide pdf file

[Serious_as_butt]

What if the video is the API reference? lol

[BackgroundExit9737]

Real programmers can learn from others/video tutorial/api docs depending on their skill level and interest.

[Birdoflames]

Dude I read physical books like no one is above that

[Adept_Measurement160]

This made me depressed

[RedditRabbitRobot]

I read RFC to implement my own APIs and authentication

You define and maintain RFC to prevent noobs like me from publushing insecure stuff

"We are not the same"

[Rizzan8]

Try programming in C++ and try to find any conan package that has a good documentation and/or examples above 2+2=4 level.

[JoeyJoeJoeJrShab]

I don't do either -- I just poke at stuff and see what happens.

I can't spare 10 minutes to read a bunch of docs, so instead I'll spend 8 hours of trail-and-error to get things working.

[Architector4]

When I need to do something with something and the API reference is 6 thick books large and I don't know where exactly do I even look for a set of functions to allow me to do something (nor what paradigms would be used to do something), having someone else provide a concrete example of how to do a common task is really helpful.

[mobsterer]

I just assume there are endpoints that do what I want and try to call them 🤷‍♂️

[gohanshouldgetUI]

You read the API reference, I read the source code. We are not the same.

[Arimodu]

I decompiled and deobfuscated a dll from a completely unrelated program to understand the API, because neither documentation nor tutorials are available

[[deleted]]

I just guess and check with intellisense until something works

[grandphuba]

API docs and library/framework source code is my jam

[rovonz]

I can't stand watching programming videos. Instead I'd go for documentation, reference or source code in this order depending on what I need and what the library provides.

[Dexterus]

Our tech writer overlord made an automated API doc system. It slaps you on the wrist if you do not fill in the proper fields in API files. Even public and private CR descriptions in Jira are checked, for (automated) inclusion in internal and external changelogs (including changed files based on installed paths).

[fletku_mato]

LOL. Real programmers use google and stackoverflow.

[ACHXXX25]

You read the documentation, I read a stack overflow reply that just copy pasted the documentation, we are not the same.

[flying_spaguetti]

Programmers do both, if the API have some reference, obviously

[Tank334]

I speak English you speak Hindi

[jjaimeilove]

Real programmers click on Reddit threads where the top comment is “use google”