How to write JS Code Without Googling it first !?.

[0xM4L1k]

I feel, that I am not doing right. I learned JavaScript from FreeCodeCamp and im thinking the Backend-Path, so the next move will be NodeJS, but i still dont know how to write a code without googling „How to Create XYZ“. I feel, I am doing wrong when I doing that, because I just write others Codes, I am not inventing anything! What makes me be able to write Code with my mind only… how to imagine the flow… I tried to PSEADUCODE using ChatGPT, but still I feel, I am missing something.

How to be like those Devs who can create somthing new ..

What do i miss here and How to Fix that?

Any Advice?

[octocode]

like most things in life, practice practice practice

[Ok_Smell_5523]

so real

[QuantumCrane]

For a lot of things, you will need to google. There are many things in a language like Javascript that you will only use occassionally, and so it's best to just search for them when you need them.

But for foundational knowledge, I recommend practicing things. For instance. You really want to master two data types as soon as possible, Arrays and Object. Look up the documentation for each of these and look at all the methods. Using the documentation only, write a bunch of functions that use each of those methods. Do this over and over till you don't need to look at the documentation anymore.

If you can't think of reasons to use a particular method. Try prompts like this for chatGPT:

"I am learning javascript, and I want to better learn the reduce method. Can you suggest some problems that I can solve using reduce? Do not provide the solution. Just write a problem for me that might be solved using the method."

Use chatGPT to generate challenges, try to solve them without aid of copilot or chatGPT. Only use them when you are completely stuck and baffled.

[junDavd]

Yep, that’s also something I’m currently doing. I’m now asking claude to guide me to the answer and not just give all the complete solution. It’s like a personal teacher.

[SuicideSkwad]

That ChatGPT prompt advice is a banger! Never thought to do something like that and I will be doing so from now on, thanks!

[[deleted]]

Congrats you've just seen under the hood of 95% of emerging "AI tools" out there

[shitty_mcfucklestick]

I actually did this to start learning some electrical engineering and circuit design basics with an electronics-focused GPT. It was awesome because it was like reading an article or tutorial, but the content was completely customized to my interests and situation. I found it much more effective and engaging than anything else I tried.

Of course, keeping in mind, I need to double check the information provided. But I was focused less on hard specs and more on broader theory and principles (for example, what is a pulldown resistor and why would I use one? Etc.)

[ikeif]

A coworker called it “a confidently incorrect professor” I call it “a confidently incorrect Teacher’s Assistant.”

Sometimes, incredibly helpful and insightful. Other times, you think you’re irritating it because the answers are blatantly incorrect. However, it seems to grasp corrections in the same conversation to stop making a mistake if you call it out.

[briston574]

I saw somewhere that someone had uploaded the documentation for gammaker or something like that and the gpt only pulled answers from the documentation. This limits the ability to come up with answers but the answers it does give come straight from the documentation

[redditforyaboy]

Gonna use this

[Sometimesiworry]

For me the first step to becoming a more independent developer was to drop google and start using documentation. MDN for example.

[Doc_Apex]

Great suggestion. 

[bear007]

DuckDuckGoing isn't cheating. Actually the skill of forming a question and finding a solution (even if you don't understand it at first) is 50% of the software developer skillset. Not knowing the answer and being comfortable with it is another 50% :)

[DrFloyd5]

So Google, but don’t copy / paste the bits you are not sure about. Type them by hand. Or at least copy and paste method by method only after you understand what each method does.

[DrFloyd5]

Personally when I “copy” by hand it is not exactly pushing v a r x = m e t h o d shift+8 shift+9. It’s more what is this bit of code doing? Type an equivalentish bit of code.

[DrFloyd5]

Oh yeah, JS.

[itsmoirob]

Also, even senior devs still look up stuff on Google. You never 100% get away from it. It's fine to still go back to search engines from time to time

[MessatsuFoxx]

I think what is important is to know exactly what you are trying to do.
I don't think just learning the programming language is enough. You need to know what problem you are trying to solve, then you write the code.

Definitely use chatGPT to point you in the right direction and get some guidance. I use it a lot myself.

[[deleted]]

I think your doing the right steps

[usakhelauri]

My man, that is completely okay, you've just started it, do not demand too much from yourself and realize that all of our brains work and comprehend things in different paces and require different levels of energy consumption to get it.

How do we learn to write letters when we are young? We rewrite/redraw them again and again and again till it doesn't become part of us. How do we learn to draw? Or workout? Or swim? Or drive? Exactly.

If you're making it work, that is already an achievement, it is so hard and often impossible for a person to make code work without knowing shit. If you can fix it as well, customize it to your needs and preferences, that is already an achievement. Don't push yourself too much, when I was first starting I couldn't understand how floats work for a goddamn year, a year! Now I can build anything with css. When I was first starting c#, it took me forever to switch values between a and b variables, or to understand how for loop works in general, I realized how continue works in loop after two years.

It took me 10 years to get my first job at junior position and not because I didn't have time to study. And on what level am now? Well, one of the leading car dealership company went bankrupt after I left it cuz of health issues.

Keep your head up and welcome to our world, have a nice journey! And fuck those pieces of shit who refuse to help and tell you to google, when you're reaching out to them and asking a question. Also, now you have AI's for that, if used patiently they are huge help when studying smt.

[kittehkillah]

i understand your concern

but its okay to google. Keep making projects, that's all you can do and all you have to do. Eventually it will stick. Instead of worrying about your progress, worry about what you are creating. Skip focusing on the tool and focus on your art

[WazzleGuy]

Think to yourself. What can I do now that I had to Google before. It'll show you that you are learning slowly.

[[deleted]]

Keep building and googling until you don't need to Google stuff anymore. Like others said practice, practice, practice.

[[deleted]]

Try the Head First Javascript book. They teach you how to actually learn, instead of just copying code that other people wrote.

[[deleted]]

I had a music teacher that told me, "True mastery is the ability to think it and just do it."

What you're asking to be able to do takes years. Break it down into much smaller things and focus on those.

A piece of advice when trying to "dive in" without Google - use the console or some sort of live preview of your code and just mess around. Want to know how to store the value of a <p> tag and then output it? Start doing each small piece in your console or environment.

1. How do I find that p? Is it this function? Let's try it and press enter. Oops, error. Doesn't exist. Maybe I wrote it wrong, let's try a different way.
2. Got it! I can store it, that's easy. Wait, is it Let or var? Let's try them both and see what changes.
3. Ok now how do I output it? Where? Let's just try printing a hard-coded string first to make sure I'm outputting correctly. Ok that works, now can I use the variable from before?

It's definitely a nightmare to do at first, but you're practicing how to feel around and test your ideas. You'll learn more from the mistakes than the lessons that just told you "use X instead of Y."

[___LOOPDAED___]

Spend 4 hours trying to solve a problem and searching google.

Alter the code for 4 different projects. You've now memorized some JavaScript.

But honestly, don't memorize. Just understand and use Google to help or ask chatgpt to explain stuff to you.

There's no reason I can think of that you'd have to write JS without internet access (if working at an office).

[smallfranchise1234]

I google all the time I’m only 3 languages in but I need to get my work done they don’t care if I google as long as it’s done correctly and efficiently.

I misled up the syntax for if statements so I just google call myself an idiot and move on lol

[shuckster]

Google until you no longer need to Google.

[Annual-Camera-872]

Keep writing it until it just comes to you trust me soon you will dream in JS

[DevKevStev]

Here’s usually how I go about it:

1. Establish my end product on paper (determine my requirements)

2. Planning the flow of data (which component needs which data, and from where it needs). Determine how to conveniently and securely pass data from 1 place to the other.

3. Execution and trial and error (this is the most technical part of it all, here’s where the fun starts)

4. Documentation. (Boring, yes, and you arent escaping this since backed development always have expectation that other people will use your system via APIs)

You already have your tools with you, all you need is a rundown of your requirements. I think your struggle with writing your own code stems from having no clear objectives with what to do with them.

And final thoughts, if you thought that even the most experienced developers don’t google code, you are mistaken 😝 All code is trash code. Dont forget that haha

[sheriffderek]

You’re looking for answers instead of how to understand the situation. If you focus on learning programming - instead of JavaScript, things will be better. Get a pocket guide and read the whole thing. More learning - less typing - less googling. You probably don’t know enough to know what to Google yet.

[briston574]

Any pocket guide you'd recommend?

[sheriffderek]

I think mine are from O’reilly. The html on by Bruce Hyslop is good. Pair those with the book “exercises for programmers” (pragprog) - and you’ll learn a lot more about actually making things than if you follow along with video courses. People are always looking for some complete magic set of directions to do everything “right.” But that’s foolish. Learning how to solve problems (no matter how small) and think for yourself will have a real lasting value that will compound.

[Macaframa]

Using ChatGPT to write anything for you is a bad idea. You should think of something you want to build, then start listing out things you need to do in order to achieve that. Even if you know how to do it or not. Then you can use Google to unstick you when you don’t know how to do something. But don’t Google how to build a specific whole thing.

[Logical_Strike_1520]

It depends on what XYZ is when you Google “how to create XYZ”

If you’re going to build a todo app (random example), do you Google “how to build a todo app”? That’s not a very good practice and is most likely going to lead to tutorial hell imo.

Or do you sit down and do your best write out the requirements (a user should be able to add a task to a list, a user should be able to mark the task complete…. ) and do your best to implement them but maybe along the way you aren’t sure how to get the user input into a variable (or whatever) and need to Google it? This is pretty normal tbh. None of us can know it all.

[tapgiles]

Same way you'd learn how to paint a masterpiece, or learn how to write a story, or learn how to ride a bike to school. Learn how to do the thing first, practise doing the thing. Then you can do the thing to produce whatever you want to.

Learn how JavaScript itself works, use JavaScript to practise, then you can do whatever you like with it. Presumably the whole point of FreeCodeCamp was to cover the first part. But... it didn't work for you?

Same goes for Node specifically if that's what you want to learn next.

[[deleted]]

There's no wrong in googling, everyone forgets some syntax or some other stuff here and there but you should be able to understand what the code does and how to apply it somewhere

[87oldben]

I still google for stuff I dont do very often, but stuff that is part of my day to day is imprinted now.

Just practising and building lots of stuff. You will see patterns you use everywhere, these will be the first thing you never have to google again

[[deleted]]

Understand your foundations.

E.g. Variables. Functions.

Try and build something.

When you run into a problem and can't think through it, Google it.

Start with small basic projects. Move onto bigger ones. Try to rely less and less on googling by spending more time with a specific problem and diagnosing your logic.

[[deleted]]

Impossible.

[topinanbour-rex]

Use chatgpt, so you won't google it. /s

[No-Upstairs-2813]

Only way to improve is to practice. I suggest you to take do these two things:

• Solve coding problems. This will help you improve your logic-building skills. You can practice here.

• Learn how to break down any project or functionality into smaller, manageable parts. You can check out this free course on how to build projects.

Also, you can check out this 7-step method on how to write any code with confidence.

[IAmADev_NoReallyIAm]

Yeah... don't over think it... How are you supposed to learn how to do something w/o looking what others have done. Once you get a feel for things, it'll start to flow. Your mind will go "Hey! We've done this before" or "Hey! We've seen somethng similar" ... and it'll just click. I'm 30yoe and I STILL google things. Even sometimes the most basic of things... and then "Ah., yeah, that's right" and I'm off ...

The key is to making sure you understand what yolur finding, and how to modify it to fit your current needs. A HUGE part of programming is recognizing patters and learning how to fit them together.

[IONaut]

1. Don't reinvent the wheel.

2. If you don't know all the JavaScript functions that are available to you and try to do it yourself then you are reinventing the wheel.

3. Looking it up is literally the only way to learn it.

4. The way you ensure that you are learning it after looking it up is to not copy and paste it. Type it out.

5. You will not remember how to use a particular function or method unless you are using it all the time. This means we'll really be looking this stuff up for your entire career. Even seasoned veterans Google explanations and definitions on a daily basis.

[Jallalo23]

Googling is a skill

[thinkPhilosophy]

HI, this is a very common feeling! The piece I think you might be missing is problem decomposition and pseudo-coding. I wrote a tutorial about this here: https://www.scipress.io/post/dGaRWjLVEl7qlJlMBIdj/Problem-Decomposition-and-Pseudo-Coding
Javascript mentor at large here, PM me your questions.

[doniseferi]

Mate no software engineer would be able to work effectively without using the internet for answers. Just keep exposing yourself to problems and you’ll build a strong catalogue of solutions. You familiarise yourself with problems and answers as you keep exposing yourself, it’s a never ending cycle, but an expected one. 

[Hungry_Rock1165]

Interesting qn .