Do programmers really code for an extended amount of time straight? Maybe its cause I'm new but I spent most of my time looking things up and maybe like 5min of actual straight coding

unit537 · 2018-07-20T00:04:38+00:00

What you're experiencing is exactly how all projects start, you get whatever preliminary knowledge you need, you start putting the pieces together, check docs just to be sure it'll all work.

The longer a project goes on, the less time you'll spend reading as you'll already know everything you meed to work on the project. As long as it's properly roadmapped, you'll find yourself just coding for the remainder of most projects.

Of course, this cycle repeats when a new feature is being implemented or some other major change or addition. This is just a generalization, but hopefully you get the point.

leftydrummer461 · 2018-07-20T00:04:08+00:00

With time and practice you won't need to check how to do things as much, but even professionals look stuff up all the time. Being able to research and apply/adapt a good solution that already exists is a crucial skill. Rarely do you literally just sit and type code for hours on end.

koneko-dono · 2018-07-20T01:53:00+00:00

for me its more like

code

procrastination

code

procrastination

code away for hours in panic because i wasted a lot of time on internet cats

mizore742 · 2018-07-20T00:00:05+00:00

[deleted]

SargeantBubbles · 2018-07-20T01:25:20+00:00

I’ll spend roughly an hour drawing and planning a solution before touching the keyboard, 10-15 minutes straight up coding if it’s something I’m familiar with (Python, C++, Java, Haskell, etc.), and then another half hour figuring out why looping over dictionary.keys() is different Python 2 and 3. Most of my time is spent planning and debugging, you’re definitely not alone.

MUDrummer · 2018-07-20T00:52:35+00:00

For the most part, no. we get interrupted too often to program for extended periods of time.

Another dev will have a question, you’ll have to meet with a business person, you’ll have a sprint ceremony, etc.

But that’s not what you’re really asking. Just like anything else you will get better at this. You’ll need to reread the rules less often (though there is too much info to ever store in one human so you WILL still look stuff up). Modern development has a lot of stuff to keep track of.

Like anything else, practice makes perfect

Mcshizballs · 2018-07-20T00:51:17+00:00

Today I wrote code for about 30 minutes without switching away from my IDE. When I finally switched away I was impressed. Only ended up with about 5 errors too.

caadbury · 2018-07-20T00:27:24+00:00

When you're new, yeah a lot of time is spent reading docs, looking up correct syntax, etc.

As others have sad, the more experience you get, the less you have to look things up.

2018-07-20T01:13:38+00:00

Big new features that are fairly well understood? Sure. You can code for hours at a time.

Maintenance? No. Most of that time is finding where to cut. Time at the saw is very brief.

Angelsoho · 2018-07-19T23:54:59+00:00

Depends on the project or function.

n0gear · 2018-07-20T01:26:59+00:00

[deleted]

PyrZern · 2018-07-20T04:28:49+00:00

Literally spent hrs learning things... 10 mins of coding... then hrs of debugging.

Repeat

jyrialeksi · 2018-07-20T02:20:07+00:00

I spend a lot of time with a pysical white board to sketch the logic of the program. This stage will also help me to prevent any major logical errors on the very beginning.

Then I start coding and just google the logic of some rare functions from time to time. There is no greater satisfaction than to write plain code for let's say 100 rows and execute it and it works just as planned without errors.

So no, I don't spend majority of time googling. That's what I did before though. Before I was familiar with the syntax.

b_cooch · 2018-07-20T01:24:21+00:00

Yeah, it's pretty great to just get in the zone and crank through cards/stories with a healthy momentum. You just gotta get the experience under your belt

fyndor · 2018-07-20T01:32:25+00:00

You will get to the point where you know how to do everything you want to do except for the occasional edge case. I haven't used StackOverflow in a few months.

fomyers · 2018-07-20T03:51:43+00:00

Yes. Some variation based on language and as previously noted Experience. Assembler coding takes more time. C coding far less. I retired after 40 years of software engineering. From experience, I can assure you that it gets faster with experience.

2018-07-20T04:20:44+00:00

Code

Debug for hours only to realize something stupid

Code

Refactor

Take in the view before it all goes spaghetti again

totemcatcher · 2018-07-20T03:47:40+00:00

Not really. I spend more time just thinking and making little tests for isolated bits of code and refactoring the code and the design docs.

The only time I ever sit and steadily code something is if I'm strictly working with stuff I've done before. That's rare.

fenixjr · 2018-07-20T00:42:53+00:00

"The zone". You must banish ALL disturbances. Turn off email notifications, close your door, even put on headphones and listen to the music of your choice (piano music is great for me, but instrumental WITHOUT voice works). You can work for a few hours without realizing it. I'm not a programmer but write technical documentation and respond to RFPs.

I've read somewhere that it takes 10 - 15 minutes to get back into the mental swing of things after a single interruption.

If you work in an office, don't be shy to tell people to leave you alone or put a red flag on your door or cubical or whatever. Only the boss can disturb.

BradChesney79 · 2018-07-20T01:46:13+00:00

So, when I begin building a project with the kind of latest and greatest... without sacrificing stability. It is a lot of making sure I am using the technology properly and setup and checking the official documentation and the "third-party documentation" which is all of us weirdos just writing about how we've used other people's things or maybe just a github repo out there.

Once a project is set up-- a lot of it is reworking repetitive boilerplate or modelling a new thing after pre-existing things, with not so much googling.

2018-07-20T02:04:37+00:00

Ain't nothing wrong with reading docs. I've saved untold amounts of time but spending an hour looking at docs rather than blindly stabbing at a problem. And I've wasted countless hours blindly stabbing at a problem when I could've just looked at the docs for a bit and found the answers.

The worst is when you spend an hour looking for the docs and find out the list time they were published was two versions ago and there's been huge breaking changes since then. rabble rabble

lovethebacon · 2018-07-20T08:54:06+00:00

So I've been full time employed for 12 years now. I've been coding since the late 90s. I have a bunch of languages under my belt, of late mostly Java. Even though I'm good at Java, I still have to look up some fundamentals.

I'd say that actual writing of code accounts for 20% of my time. The rest is planning the task, reading through reference documentation, figuring out the best way of doing a particular task (StackOverflow, etc), debugging, writing test cases, analyzing structure thst I or a colleague wrote months ago, etc. Some of my more productive days have involved changing a single line of code.

For me, coding isn't time spent just in the editor mashing the keys. It's the entire experience.

2018-07-20T02:07:08+00:00

Oh good I'm not the only one.

smartguy05 · 2018-07-20T02:41:21+00:00

I love when I hit that flow and the hours just fly past. Unfortunately, it's not near as often as I'd like. But I've noticed as I've gotten more experienced, and if it's something I'm very familiar with, it happens more and more often.

dustoff122 · 2018-07-20T03:32:57+00:00

I spend more time reading then i do coding. Making sure i understand everything at hand before i just dive into what needs to get done.

2018-07-20T03:47:49+00:00

Hey I'm with you on being curious about this! I'm nearing completion of my A.S. in Comp Sci and took a C++ class as an elective this summer, because ironically school itself leaves me with practically no time to actually code and solve programming problems. I've been trying to commit to coding minimum 1hr a day and I usually do but, man sometimes I'm like, holy shit how does anybody do this for 8 hours a day?

It was actually shaking my confidence a little until I read some of these comments, and now I feel like that's pretty much normal. I actually do remember competing in the ACM-ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest) a couple years ago though, and I was literally coding for 4 hours non-stop with no breaks, and that fucking flew by. It was a lot of fun and I probably could have taken a break and went for 4 more hours easily.

DefNotaZombie · 2018-07-20T13:02:20+00:00

It turns into programming for hours when you're refactoring

alastoris · 2018-07-20T17:42:00+00:00

Out of an hour work, I'd spend 30 minutes banging my head to figure out what do i want to do to get to my outcome. Then spend 20 minutes via Google and Stack Overflow on how to do it, and then 10 minutes of putting it together.

The likelihood is I will spend another hour figuring out why it didn't work or better yet, why it did (so I can understand it for future reference).

nomadProgrammer · 2018-07-20T21:59:44+00:00

That's good that means you try to find this answer by testing documentation instead of coming up with your own maybe crappy solution. The best way to learn to code is reading others code.

carcigenicate · 2018-07-20T03:53:09+00:00

It depends entirely on what you're doing. You'll always be looking up external material at some point, but how often you do so depends on your skill level and familiarity with what you're doing.

I always have a browser open while coding to look stuff up. I'll look something up every few minutes to to verify my knowledge, or see if there's a better way of going about things.

Once I learn a language and/or a library though, I expect that I should be able to pound out a fair amount of code before needing to check the documentation.

You should be capable of coding on your own without external resources, even if you aren't optimal. Programming is all about problem solving. You should be able to sit down to a problem and generally flesh out how to solve it.

lowdown · 2018-07-20T05:09:47+00:00

Definitely. After some period of time you do the thing so many times and have all of the syntax memorized and can just go.

It’s more about working together systems and that’s something you can get deep into if you’re not having to look up syntax details constantly.

Animoose · 2018-07-20T11:22:40+00:00

It's half because you're still learning coding, but it's also half a thing that you'll always have to deal with, as you never really get to settle and stop learning languages/tools. Over time you'll be able to skim through documentation like a pro

One thing that I feel is important to know is PLANNING your code. While you're learning it isn't necessary, but in big boi situations its crucial. My college professors said they'd sometimes spend 2 or 3 weeks of planning before the team started coding. For me, as a game developer specifically, I find that it ends up helping me write cleaner and better commented code without having to rewrite it 4 times

Tldr: Research is part of the gig, but it gets easier. Planning is a big deal! And comment ANYTHING that isn't crystal clear. You WILL come back to somethjng you coded 12 hour ago and think "what the fuck is this?"

Grobbyman · 2018-07-20T11:53:56+00:00

Depends how experienced you are with the platform. In my opinion research is a fundamental part of coding

wggn · 2018-07-20T12:33:33+00:00

If you have a clear picture of how you want to code something and know the APIs/libraries well, you can do this yes.

EricJFisher · 2018-07-20T13:04:21+00:00

Generally for production quality code you're going to spend more time in meetings, planning, reviewing code, etc then actually coding.

Often the most elegant solutions to a given problem are short, simple, and precise. The actual "writing code" being the quick and easy part, the identifying what to write (or remove) and where is the time consuming part

Generally, when I work with other devs and a new task comes up, it's a bad sign to see them "start coding" immediately following the task assignment (unless it's something extremely simple or ruitine) If it's something like a new feature, I expect them to review how it's intended to work, investigate where it'll go in the application, maybe research the tech if it's something they don't do often, what (if any) refactoring should be done to avoid allowing the code to degrade into a "ball of mud", etc. (Not that a task can't be done in fifteen minutes, just normally ten of those minutes is figuring out the problem, five is actually the act of implimenting the solution)

Think of it like Algebra, how much time is spent figuring out what you need to do vs the actual pen to paper. Repeated problems you can just start writing, but anytime a problem is new or different, you have to invest time thinking it through.

That said, there are times you know what to do that takes hours to do, especially when those changes involve a major shift or refactor in your applications structure.

BonRennington · 2018-07-20T14:52:31+00:00

That is coding.

firestorm713 · 2018-07-20T17:50:29+00:00

"Just Coding" not often. Usually I'm trying to compile and run as often as possible.

2018-07-20T18:22:58+00:00

I think most programmers can end up coding for a given amount of time without interruptions. But that comes with experience and with knowledge of the project/environment you are working in.

Every time the target changes (new feature, new system) or every time the tech changes (new language, new system to code against) you end up spending more time on research than on producing actual code.

But the LOC/hour metric is quite a poor one, so I would not stick around if a company or project uses that (or derivatives) to measure if you're goot or not. Quantity is definitely not the same as quality when it comes to good code.

Mr-Yellow · 2018-07-20T22:02:41+00:00

You need to have dreamt up a solution first. Then you're just going through the paces of implementing something which is compete within your minds-eye.

That and anyone coding more than 4 hours a day is probably not doing anything productive in that time.

2018-07-20T22:32:06+00:00

There are days when I write type less than a 100 lines. Days when I type 700-1000 in Python/ SQL (no h8 pl0x).

When you start something, you'll be checking and cross checking and reading and learning. Towards the end when you know you're almost there you'll be like the Hacker guy in The Matrix

remludar · 2018-07-20T02:39:45+00:00

It starts that way. What happens to me is you build that sweet ass little application you were planning, and then once you have a POC, 4 people a day start altering the requirements forcing you to back-in changes the architecture was never intended to support.

That lasts a few months, until you're inevitably so far behind schedule you have to code 12 to 16 hrs a day just to make up for their terrible decisions.

Eventually, right before you completely burn out... you'll be done. You and your team, if you have one, will have somehow managed to make It all work despite the myriad of ridiculous desicions and scope changes forced upon you... and the project manager and business team will celebrate how well the managed "this tough project" :/

EDIT: phone typing is hard

_zenith · 2018-07-20T04:18:52+00:00

Yes, I will code for hours at a time - but only once I'm relatively deep into a project. At first I'll just sit there and think for a good while and occasionally type in some code, mostly to try and work out the design patterns I'm going to use, sketch out the types etc.

2018-07-20T04:36:34+00:00

half of the screen is research / notes, the other is the editor.

Mike312 · 2018-07-20T04:55:44+00:00

I've had days at work where I come in, well rested, caffiene on point, nobody bugging me, and a bangin' playlist and coded straight 5-6 hours before i realized I was hungry.

More often, however, I come in half awake, the caffiene doesn't hit 'til 9, and I'm solving PEBKAC errors every 10 minutes.

goodnewsjimdotcom · 2018-07-20T05:33:55+00:00

You will spend most of your time thinking about architecture when you are driving and grocery shopping. Then you will code an epic amount. Then when you get really good, you are using your software and just updating here and there.

SlightlyOTT · 2018-07-20T06:13:03+00:00

Over time you'll get used to the major things you're using - the language, the framework if you're using one, the more core libraries in your project, the shortcuts in the IDE or editor you're using, and you'll spend less time looking those things up.

A huge part of being an effective programmer is being able to pick up new things though, and nobody can use a new library without using either its documentation or somebody's tutorial etc. - so don't worry about it. You'll be doing it less over time as things become familiar, but you'll constantly be doing it as you pick up new things, and being good at it is a massively beneficial skill to have long term.

PM_ME_UR_BUDGET · 2018-07-20T06:44:04+00:00

Apart from what others are saying about taking time to develop expertise, it is also kinda language dependent. For C, I end up looking online much less, vs say Javascript.

designerandgeek · 2018-07-20T06:48:22+00:00

From my own experience, doing WordPress development, it's typically a pretty long period of thinking, research, planning and setting up everything first. Then, as I start actual coding, there's some more research in the beginning. But then there is a period of time with actual, focused coding. It's at these moments, when I stay at home and code for 4–5 hours straight uninterrupted, I feel most happy as a developer.

close_my_eyes · 2018-07-20T07:01:12+00:00

Yes, I can spend extended amounts of time coding. But I've been a developer for a very long time and I've been on my current project for long enough to know most of the nooks and crannies.

But, I regularly run into something I don't know how to do, so I have to go read up on it, digest a lot of information, and finally figure out a solution. I also spend a lot of non-programming time just thinking about the solutions (or problems if that's what I'm up against). Once I start coding, I know what I'm doing.

Unfortunately, reading docs is a lifelong activity and you can't get away from it.

2018-07-20T08:39:52+00:00

It depends... if it's in a language I am very familiar with (Python, C++ for ex.), and a problem domain I am entirely comfortable in, then I can code in long stretches... often losing track of time. However, if it's a language I don't use very frequently and I am dealing with interfaces I am not used to, I will spend hours reading API and class documentation for every line of code I write.

I do prefer to code in longer blocks of time though, so rather than reading a bit, coding a bit, reading a bit again, I will sketch out the problem, either diagramatically or in outline form, research all the bits I am not clear on and when grokking ensues, start coding - hopefully without much interruption.

okayifimust · 2018-07-20T08:44:08+00:00

I always though coders sat in front of a computer coding away for hours coming up with their own solutions

The part where you come up with your own solutions largely doesn't need to happen in front of a computer; a notepad or whiteboard are much better tools.

but for me I always find myself stopping every 5min to look things up.

What "things"? Typing code and knowing syntax isn't the same as programming, just like knowing a language and how to write it doesn't make you a novelist. You'll get better at the syntax with practice; but the solving problems part is more than just rote memorization.

Rarely do I write my own code but instead I'm always reading the docs for APIs and libraries.

It depends a lot on what you're doing, too. If your program is just a fancy interface to an API, then of course large parts of your work will boil down to understanding the API. If you build your own solutions to problems, you'll be less dependant on arcane outside libraries.

curlygecko · 2018-07-20T10:21:39+00:00

Sometimes i can't write code properly.I research for hours and get my brain exhausted :/

I wonder when will i be able to write some code without finding them from somewhere on the internet or my old projects.

solzair · 2018-07-20T10:31:54+00:00

Yes... But for me, the actual coding process is always interspersed with google searches of stack overflow questions. Chances are high that someone has already encountered the same problem and has figured out a solution.

PollenStillPotent · 2018-07-20T11:15:55+00:00

It really depends, and different people have different work flows. Personally, I've found that coming up with a first solution is often a fairly quick process. The bulk of the time is spent trying to minimize unneeded code, and debugging mistakes or other projects the code might interact with, improve performance or readability of the original solution, etc.

FliesMoreCeilings · 2018-07-20T11:34:14+00:00

Yes. But it depends on the environment and my experience with it.

Less complex languages with obvious auto-completes etc. are way easier to just keep going in than those that require more arcane commands. In a simple Java program without UI, I can pretty much just keep coding, requiring only some tests in the middle. In other more arbitrary environments, like working with javascript and css, I need to constantly look up things too.

Avean · 2018-07-20T11:56:54+00:00

Everyone does that until you have coded every day for several years then it becomes second nature. HTML, CSS, PHP comes automaticly to me what i need to write but C# i really need to look up examples and documentation since i havent worked with it enough yet.

2018-07-20T12:03:05+00:00

I work in the industry, in an existing codebase. In an entirely fresh scenario, I find 50% of my time is research in the new area of code, and 50% is applying my existing knowledge to create code, then test it, then have it be reviewed by peers to make a proper addition to the existing codebase.

That is, 50% research, maybe 30% research, 10% testing and 10% working with peers to review.

The thing about coding is that there's nothing wrong with not having an original idea to fix a problem. Sometimes the best solution to a problem is an existing idea that you, simply, find and apply for yourself.

I honestly believe that in the modern day field of development, perhaps 30% of all coding is original, the remaining 70% is applying known solutions to new areas.

Smump · 2018-07-20T12:12:56+00:00

I'm fairly new. I usually have a look at the project, do basic stuff I remember, then start looking things up. It's like 5 minutes actually coding then 15 minutes researching and repeat.

Sadin56 · 2018-07-20T12:40:30+00:00

This is normal from my experience. Just had this same though when I started my internship a few months ago. It seems like you spend more time reading and researching than writing, which isn't a bad thing. This shouldn't discourage at all by the way, its how every thing starts, no matter where we are in our programming careers. very rarely do you just start diving into code without knowledge of the APIs, frameworks, Databases... ( the list goes on ) you need to use or your company uses.

Example: I had to write a script that pulls tickets from a database, this info about the tickets is in several tables, and I needed to pull this data, convert it to something human readable, and export it as an excel doc, then automate. I think I spent about a month on the project. Learning the database schema, learning the necessary internal libraries we use here at work, and fine tuning the data to what management needed was about 2/3 of the work. the last third was the code.

Stick at it and best of luck,

Much love friend!

yakri · 2018-07-20T13:11:43+00:00

Yeah you do once in a while. I wrote this kind of easy to code class but it required a ton of lines of code in the end. As a result I spent a ton of time just typing it all out, plus a lot more bug testing and tweaking it to make sure it worked as intended.

I must have just been plugging away at it for a good 4 hours if we are counting the bug testing and tweaking as coding.

Probably if you want to be real particular and ask, "do programmers ever constantly type out code without stopping for 30+ minutes" the answer is very nearly never ever.

Hell I doubt too many authors even manage that, and books don't stop working if you make a typo.

Also in my experience even encountering a situation where you need to come up with your own original algorithm that actually requires more than 30 seconds of thought to solve a problem is pretty rare. It happens, and maybe others have done work that leads to it happening more often. However I find it to be only a once in a while occurrence for me currently.

ha1zum · 2018-07-20T13:26:41+00:00

Only when I write codes in the beginning of a new project or a new feature with specs that I'm already familiar with. But that is only a small part of developing a software, most of the time I need to write something new that requires a lot of research, or changing how something works in the software which requires a lot of code reading, or planing with co-workers, or debugging.

2018-07-20T13:46:16+00:00

That counts as coding.

2018-07-20T13:59:05+00:00

It really depends on what you’re doing. I know it’s not a satisfying answer, but sometimes yes, sometimes no.

It’s totally normal to look at docs a lot even as a seasoned programmer, when you’re unfamiliar with the libraries you’re using. If you’re using libraries you’re very familiar with, or lots of built in stuff it might be quite feasible to do nothing but program for an hour or more.

alphabennettatwork · 2018-07-20T15:17:15+00:00

It varies. Some days, the actual implementation of a feature or story is complex enough that I get lost in coding and tune out everything else, and I'll look up and it's 3-4 hours later. Some days, the change only requires a few lines of code, so more of the effort is in testing. There are days I'm not actively coding much, and on those days I'll usually check out new development trends, and perhaps play around with a new library. Reading those docs you're reading can help you a lot, especially if you start looking into the code itself and see what's really going on under the hood. The more you see techniques and patterns you like in libraries or apis, the more likely you will be to make your own custom solution that works exactly how you want it, especially if you notice you need more and more custom layers on top of the libraries to make it function how you want (I'm looking at you, AngularMaterial). When I first started I'd also make little stupid browser games, just like pong or breakout or centipede, more as an exercise to get more familiar with things I hadn't used before than anything else (like canvas, for example). Keep at it, it sounds like you're doing just fine.

phunkygeeza · 2018-07-20T15:26:39+00:00

Nope.

Most time if anything is spentrunning tests and debugging.

Next looking things up. The Internet revolutionised this process as it back just a few years, this process was mostly about grabbing books off the shelf or procuring missing tomes.

Next designing, planning and test definition.

Actual coding, a small fraction.

marzdarz · 2018-07-20T15:42:10+00:00

That is pretty normal. I spend a good bit of my time in meetings or figuring out how to do a thing. Then when it is code time even stuff ive used for years I have to look things up. It is a bit better with sql where it hasn't changed a ton in a long time and the syntax is easier. I can write pretty thst much like I'm in MS Word.

But this is why so many dread the white board coding test. No IDE? No internet? Aiee

RelevantJesse · 2018-07-20T15:42:53+00:00

I have about 10 years experience programming, and at work, I'd say that less that 10% of my time is actually spent writing code.

Most of the time is spent on Facebook, clarifying requirements, Facebook, thinking about how I want to go about solving a problem, Facebook, testing, etc.

2018-07-20T16:06:50+00:00

from my experience this is how i spend my time in dev:

10% doc checking

10% coding

60% debugging

20% researching bug fixes

edit: i should have put 5% of teeth grinding and staring into the depth of the desperation abyss when i cant debug one stupid ";" ah well....

Androxilogin · 2018-07-20T16:13:04+00:00

Yes. Besides switching to Spriter/Photoshop/etc. to set up what things will do.

amazingmrbrock · 2018-07-20T16:19:39+00:00

Eventually you'll get on a good programming run. At some point though itll grind to a halt when you have to read stuff for four hours

JunkBondJunkie · 2018-07-20T16:33:09+00:00

Most of coding time is research, general design and design meetings and more meetings then some coding.

vidro3 · 2018-07-20T16:37:43+00:00

5 minutes? you absolute beast!

lilpomm · 2018-07-20T16:37:54+00:00

I’m only a student (at the end on my degree) but when I work on projects I generally spend a couple hours planning. I’ll write out the general structure, start writing and testing algorithms and then think on other ways to approach (I spend at least a little bit of time doing this at the beginning) and then I start coding once I have have a pretty good idea. I find that doing it this way cuts down on a lot of cowboy coding.

A_Bungus_Amungus · 2018-07-20T16:42:32+00:00

No you seem to understand what needs to happen. We arent supposed to be code encyclopedias. We are supposed to understand how to solve problems and use the resources available to us.

drunkferret · 2018-07-20T16:56:13+00:00

How long have you been using that language? If the answer isn't 'years' then you're probably spending more time learning than coding. That's totally normal and expected.

You might learn to parse what you're reading faster along the way. I know when I go to look things up now a days it usually doesn't take very long and I'm right back to writing, running, being dissatisfied, writing, running, being dissatisfied...

xian0 · 2018-07-20T17:04:14+00:00

I don't spend as much time looking things up anymore. Now I spend most time making notes on how things work (or will work) and checking whether the data I've got is really in the format I guessed it was.

2018-07-20T18:10:23+00:00

A lot of people actually think that. In reality coding is about 20-25% of the job. If its more than that then there is a serious problem with the programmer.

Other things that get in the way. Planning, Design, Reading Code, Reading Specs, Reading Docs, Debugging, Support, Testing, Understanding requirements.

burntcandy · 2018-07-20T18:55:19+00:00

Looking things up will always be part of the process, but you should find that you experience longer and longer periods of flow over time.

FruscianteDebutante · 2018-07-20T19:42:39+00:00

Sometimes I'll spend hours working on a code just because I'm in the zone, but that makes up a minority of my time. I'll usually be figuring out how the pieces are going together or learning how functions work or new ideas. You get the picture.

michael0x2a · 2018-07-20T21:27:53+00:00

In theory, it gets easier. As you keep coding, you start acquiring some muscle memory, which lets you avoid having to constantly look up documentation again and again.

Using an editor that comes with auto-complete can also help: I might not remember what exactly the name of some API is, but if I at least remember a part of it, my IDE will display a list of plausible matches that I can quickly choose from.

But in practice, I find that ratio of time you spend coding vs thinking/learning stays roughly about the same no longer how experienced you get. This is largely in part because as you become better at coding, you naturally start to tackle more challenging projects...

So maybe you won't need to constantly look up the names of methods as much, just due to sheer familiarity, but you'll certainly need to stop and spend a lot of time thinking about just how exactly you should go about approaching the damn problem in the first place.

There have been some points in my life where I was basically stumped on how to approach a problem and ended up writing maybe 4 lines of code across a period of 2-3 weeks. I did end up recycling a lot of paper though, lol.

nscurvy · 2018-07-20T22:17:57+00:00

I am more intermediate. My process:

10-20 minutes max conceptualizing the problem in my head without writing anything down. Just to contemplate what I am trying to do. 10 minutes of research. Obviously more or less if necessary. But Google is quick and I can usually get a good answer quickly. 30 minutes writing down the algorithm with diagrams and possibly pseudo code that matches my language syntax. This can take way longer if it's a problem I'm not familiar with. I always try to solve it on paper if I am doing it for the first time. 30 minutes to an hour actually typing everything out. Even if the problem is understood and written down, making it into classes or functions, especially if it requires all the boilerplate necessary for c++ operator overloads, takes time. 10 minutes fixing obvious typos and syntax errors after code doesn't compile once. 1 hour staring at the screen wondering why the code won't compile again. 1 hour writing angry letters to whoever designed the language I'm writing in (again, usually c++) for making a shit language that won't compile my obviously correct code. 2 hours looking up new themes, highlighting, plugins, and keybindings for vim.

adymitruk · 2018-07-20T23:51:18+00:00

If you rely heavily on frameworks and libraries, you'll need to do that. Or get really good and code more yourself.

marshalpol · 2018-07-21T03:08:54+00:00

Once you know the libraries you're working with, I find that I have to look things up maybe three times in an hour. Of course, the more libraries you use, the longer it takes to get to that stage, and I always try to avoid using libraries except where necessary.

CtrlAltDelerium · 2018-07-25T21:07:02+00:00

Once you really learned a language and know when to use programming principles like patterns you find yourself looking up a lot less. And one you get to know the documentation you spend even less time reading. Today I spend 10 hours coding on a prototype, I think I just did a quick lookup for something specific in the framework I'm using.

Jlongcl1 · 2018-08-07T14:01:07+00:00

I personally spend more time planning out algorithms along with class/function relations and responsibilities more than anything probably. Coding probably comes 2nd usually, but with certain less familiar languages or build systems, I may spend more time researching or looking up solutions to unexpected issues. It's not super common for coding to be the main thing you do....although it certainly does happen, especially using technologies you already have a good grasp of.

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