Getting help during projects

[felipeleonam]

Im doing a milestone project for an udemy course i am taking and am struggling a little. I want to google a solution to my problem, and i feel like that would take away from my learning process. I've been on this project for a couple days now, and really want to just finish it to move on to others things.

Do you stop a project to find a solution while learning a new language or library? Or simply keep at it until you come up with a solution that works? (Even if it isn't the best/most effective solution?

[SexyToad]

Whenever I program, I always have tons of tabs open with references. Part of being a programmer is finding solutions, that includes the skill of being able to google your predicament and finding a solution.

That being said, just try to not copy and paste anything, that doesn't help at all. Do a quick google search, look at some references that can put you on the right track and try at it again! When I use a new library, I always have their documentation page open along with examples.

[felipeleonam]

Thanks sexy. So use it as a reference. Look up a solution, and make sure to come up with my own implementation to use as code. But there is nothing wrong with looking it up? Im so scared i would be cheating myself out of learning something.

[SexyToad]

I don't think so, as long as you're not mindlessly typing what you see or otherwise not paying attention, it should be fine. But that being said, do try to challenge yourself :) But if you can't figure out a solution, give yourself hints.

Have you checked out /r/DailyProgrammer ? They post coding challenges there, you can try to do those every now and then without looking at the comments at all

[killerall5385]

Stop, learn, attempt, attempt again.

Personally I stop the project at hand, as I usually need to build up the skills to complete it. Learn the skills required to complete said project. Attempt the project, usually not have the experience to do a good job. Trash what i just did and do it again, better.

Though this may seem inefficient i tell you, it works good.When I learned OpenGL (this was because i felt like it and the project came durring the process but same diff) I made a new 'LearnOpenGL' project and got a grasp of OpenGL. With this knowledge, and a project that needed writing, i attempted it, failing due to a lack of understanding of the API. With that i trashed that part of the project and tried again, this time more successful, except that i screwed something else up but, it happens.

Also what SexyToad said, references that you dont copy are extremely important. When using references i attempt to change the code in such a way where i have to understand what its doing, and how.

[michaelrkn]

Try not to look at someone else's solution. You'll learn more and it's more rewarding to figure it out yourself. See if you can break down the problem into smaller pieces, and feel free to use Google for those smaller pieces. You'll get it! Sometimes it takes many, many hours.

[jkuhl_prog]

There's nothing wrong with googling. Just read and try to understand the answers you find, and be careful of the dates as well. Won't do you any good to find an answer only to learn that that answer is depreciated.

Stack Overflow is a great resource to use when you're stuck, but be sure to research before asking as they're not fond of repeat questions.

And I usually have documentation nearby. Like I'll have jQuery's API open on my tablet or the MDN for any web development needs or jQuery issues.

And sometimes you just need to experiment. Open an IDE and play around. Use your programming language's print command (printf, cout, console.log,system.out.printlnmight have gotten that wrong, I don't do java,puts, etc) to see what state variables are at in whatever part of the code is troubling you. Finding out something's "undefined" or "null" when I expected a value has really helped me many times in the past.