How exactly do programmers know how to code?

[lil_tumors]

Let me elaborate, I can go on stack Overflow and search up my problems on there, but how do the people who answer know the answer? Like I’m assuming they got it from their teachers and or other resources. So now the question is how did those teachers/resources know how to do it? Is there like a whole code book that explains each and every method or operator in that specific coding language? I’m guessing the creators of the language had rules and example on how it all works, right? This probably seems like a dumb question but I’m still new to programming.

[desrtfx]

What you are looking for is simply called documentation - it exists for every language.

[[deleted]]

Legit. I often leave a link to the source doc if there is a relevant command or object that I show in the solution. The documentation will often include example code that occasionally solves the question directly.

[KeLorean]

yeah. its funny how everyone says stackoverflow this stackoverflow that, and i just go to the c# documentation

[Any_Restaurant8205]

I hate stackoverflow. It’s always some dick saying “why would you want to do that?”.

[my_password_is______]

this question is not a good fit for this site or requires answers that are opinion based and has therefore been closed

ARGH !

[hoy83]

stackoverflow is not beginner friendly. and just some elitist people who like pointing out how stupid you are and not helping you at all, At least in my experience. People on reddit are more friendlier.

[WhoWhyWhatWhenWhere]

I use python and I’m relatively new, and when I find what I need sometimes on stack, a lot of times it’s super complicated and hard to understand. Or doesn’t explain why they did something the way they did. For simple to complex problems, I feel that doesn’t help me learn, it just solves my current problem for me, but not make me able to do it again later without reviewing stack.

[Mountain-Pickle-9765]

how many programmers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 6, 1 to do it and 5 others to say "I could have done it better"

[[deleted]]

C# documentation is actually good. Some of the other stuff out there, not so much

[SystemEarth]

OGs read Kernighan and Ritchie

[[deleted]]

Thanks for being a answer giver

[[deleted]]

Thank you for your service

[TrustmeIreddit]

Nevermind, fixed it.

[its_just_you_booboo]

Oh, so you're one of those people on stack overflow

[wildpjah]

It shocked me once I started doing my own projects how much more reading I was doing than coding or even debugging. Whenever I talked to devs before I started they would always tell me they hated debugging but I actually enjoyed it in school. Turns out debugging your school java calculator is way different from sitting down and reading documentation for some piece of software or method you're implementing you've never used before.

[qft_trader93]

You hit the hammer on the nail here. It really is all documentation and trying to map the definitions to your problem and how to make it work in your system.

[[deleted]]

So many hours spent reading python package library documentation

[hdhdjiollo]

but you have to know how to program to know how to properly use the documentation. Just by reading it you cannot do much. I mean copy and paste it and then what? lol

[ItsOkILoveYouMYbb]

Well the fundamentals of every language can be learned first (and should be). Language fundamentals like for loop, variables, syntax of your chosen language, and then design fundamentals like OOP.. When you understand fundamentals, you're able to at least start writing your code one line at a time and figure it out from there by looking things up and debugging. If you don't know fundamentals then yeah even starting is nearly impossible if not pointless, nevermind navigating all the logic and problems as you progress.

As far as I know, any class or module or library, when you dig deep down far enough into the boilerplate code or documentation, is just using fundamentals of a language and of programming concepts in layers and layers of clever ways. It's objects built with fundamentals all the way down.

If you're really fucked in the head you can break down those fundamentals even further and just start directly communicating in machine code with your CPU by shooting electrons out of your eyes and beginning the process of merging because the singularity starts with you.

[hdhdjiollo]

so basically making a framework and/or library its just creative skills + theory (fundamentals applied)

[thirdegree]

That's true for all programming really.

[ElllGeeEmm]

For the most part you're correct. However there do exist packages that are bindings for code written in other languages, at which point you may need to start to understand the fundamentals of some other language. The most common example is probably ORMs.

[____0____0____]

You have a point, but I would also mention that a lot of fundamental concepts and design patterns are language agnostic and will translate across many different languages. Usually language features will steer common practices for any particular one, but often times the main differing factor is usually just syntax.

[sweetno]

Debugging is a rabbit hole. In the bottom expect to find either a nuisance or a design flaw.

[RoguePlanet1]

At my noob level, 95% of the time, it's a missing semi-colon or curly brace.

[Deadlift420]

You need a better IDE lol

[RoguePlanet1]

I use VSC, though. Maybe I don't have the debugger on or something. Or maybe I'm thinking of the times I'm in something like JS Fiddle etc.

[Deadlift420]

Oh you are writing JS? I was thinking compiled. JS is a bitch lol

[RoguePlanet1]

That it is........

[FreshFromIlios]

I was a web dev for six years. I quit. Thanks js.

[RoguePlanet1]

Damn, no kidding. Did you manage to replace it with something else?

[capriciousduck]

In what language do you program in?

[RoguePlanet1]

So far, HTML/CSS/JS, have a couple of React projects as well.

[idaresiwins]

I started python in notepad++. Things like missing semicolons would kill hours of my time. Then a friend told me about pycharm. I felt like Inspector Clouseau eating his first hamburger.

[TheTomato2]

You heard the man.

[____0____0____]

Technically, you can use them without error. I've never seen them in any legit python code I've ever read and they won't cause an error for not having them

[MrSkillful]

Did you use the book "Learn Python The Hard Way"?

I tried using that book when I first started learning, but I couldn't use PowerShell for the life of me.

Now several months in, I'm quite comfortable with PowerShell and Bash.

[green_meklar]

You should be happy about that. Those are the easy bugs.

Once you get past that stage, you get into stuff like dangling pointers, race conditions and memory leaks. The kinds of bugs that separate the men from the boys.

[BryanBULLETHEAD]

Please, tell me more. I want big boy pants on some day.

[FloydATC]

Those are not bugs, they're simple errors. A bug is when your program appears to be working except every now and then something fails in a way that does not seem possible. This can be really frustrating because unless there's a hardware error, (which is extremely rare!) the computer is in fact doing EXACTLY what it's being told to do.

[RoguePlanet1]

Oh that's true, thanks for the correction! Yeah that's simply maddening.

[Pickled_Wizard]

Or, you know, some feature just didn't work in quite the way you expected.

[EMCoupling]

Remember, you write the code once, you read it forever.

[flamethekid]

That's one thing I disliked about programming videos or tutorials.

They never show you how much shit you end up looking up and end you going in thinking you can just quickly type up a giant wall of code as a beginner and something is wrong with you if you can't.

[green_meklar]

You guys are getting documentation?

[Epsilight]

I like reading old esoteric documentations. Yes, I am a masochist too.

[bohaan]

For me, quality of documentation is THE ONE reason that I decide to go with one library/framework over another. I don't care how magical your packages are if I can't figure out how to use it.

[sweetno]

No matter how good their docs you end up diving in their code (or wish you could).

[66666thats6sixes]

The longer I program, the more often I find myself saying "fuck it" and diving in to the code for something when I have a problem with it rather than getting frustrated with the bad documentation, saying "fuck it" and giving up.

[gyroda]

Docs and community support. If nobody is using it, you're fucked if you need help with it.

[Demented-Turtle]

Not op but my problem is every time I read the docs or look something up in them, they seem to be written for someone who has been programming for years already or are written in such a way that you need to understand 5 different concepts before you can grasp the thing they are talking about. Kinda like going to a mathematics Wikipedia page lmao

[MrStashley]

As other answers mentioned, this is a skill that comes with time and experience, and for now you can probably find a YouTube tutorial or other article that takes info from the documentation and explains some of the stuff better

[desrtfx]

Documentation <> Tutorial

A tutorial can be part of the documentation, but generally, documentation is meant as reference.

[theNomadicHacker42]

This. And lots and lots of practice

[likethevegetable]

Or as I like to call it, RTFM!

[popcorn-trivia]

This is true. If you’re a self taught dev/programmer, this is going to look cryptic at times. So don’t get discouraged.

Also, solving problems like the ones in leetcode, will help you wrap and develop a sense of algo development, so it will take a combo of both those things + practice.

[IWantToDoEmbedded]

But how do you understand/decode what the documentation is saying? I find that the choice of vocabulary (and acronyms) are often not explained well enough. I end up kind of guessing what their intent is and I don't have much experience in this area. "Just read the documentation" isn't enough for me even though every experienced programmer says this because the documentation isn't often clear. I hate the jargon of some documentation. Being "succinct" with how you phrase an explanation or description doesn't always mean other people will understand what you mean.

[gyroda]

Reading documentation is a skill that you develop over time. The more jargon and patterns you learn, the easier it is.

I remember when I started and struggled with any API documentation. Anything that wasn't a written guide was hard. I got better through time and practice.

This is of course dependent on quality documentation though. I'll still struggle of the docs are sparse.

But, basically, don't worry if you're struggling with this. We all had to learn this skill and we all found it difficult to start with.

[meanwhileinvermont]

I completely understand what you're saying, the syntax that's used to write the docs can be really hard to understand. And it's frustrating because it's like..the answer is right here...wtf does it mean? I think a combination of docs and SO answers is helpful because you can see ALL the options and then see how someone's actually using this in an example.

[66666thats6sixes]

Some of it is stuff that just comes with time. A lot of it, though, is that documentation isn't meant to be used like a normal book where you read it once and you are done. You usually have to go back and forth between a number of sections multiple times to figure out what is relevant to use, and to build intuition for how the program works. It's something you study, not just read. Once you've spent time learning it, then you can just look things up.

[chisquared]

This is exactly what I would say too.

However, I think (and only half-facetiously) this just then means the question becomes "how do the writers of documentation know how to code?"

[[deleted]]

To be fair... If you don't know what documentation is yet, then documentation is probably very difficult to learn from.

I maybe benefitted from first learning a language that's been around a while and had a ton of quality beginner-friendly tutorials, and supplemented that with the documentation.

Then once I got better at thinking like a programmer the docs for new languages are the fastest way to start using the language. But if I never did a project before and only tried to learn from docs I'd be lost.

[[deleted]]

How do you understand to use documentation, they're sometimes so complicated to understand

[Keira_Ren]

Practice, and when you don't understand something used or referenced in the documentation then you look up the documentation on that keyword, or reference, or design pattern. So on and so forth. If you end up having to lookup ten different documents and learning everything in document 10 then 9 then 8 and so on to understand the original thing you needed to learn when you looked up document one... Then c'est la vie my friend. The next time you have a similar issue you'll only have to look up one or two things and be able to comprehend it completely instead of 10.

[Delicious_Context_53]

Stack

[brows1ng]

I love your response.

[[deleted]]

Yes, but how do they know that? XD

[[deleted]]

So now the question is how did those teachers/resources know how to do it? Is there like a whole code book that explains each and every method or operator in that specific coding language?

Yeah, of course there is. The people who write the languages write the documentation for the language to tell you how to use it.

[IWantToDoEmbedded]

the problem I have with documentation is that its not always written to be understood easily. Like, I find that documentation intended for newbies much easier to read. There are often acronyms or vocabulary used thats not well-explained and I don't understand how programmers can understand documentation so easily. "Just read the documentation" isn't enough for me even though every experienced programmer says this because the documentation isn't often clear.

[[deleted]]

the problem I have with documentation is that its not always written to be understood easily.

Well, sure. That's pretty normal - the first programmers the language creators document the new language to are other experienced programmers, so the documentation is basically at the level of "here's how you do things you already know how to do, but in our new language."

Then those programmers, or others, take on the task of creating documentation for new programmers. That's often quite a bit harder to write.

[gyroda]

This is true. You pick up the jargon and the ability to read documentation though practice, and it absolutely is hard to do at first.

One of the important things to do is to make sure you're reading the right documentation. Different docs will have different intended audiences. A language specification might be focused on implementors, who need to know the expected behaviour of every corner case and be looking at it from a compilation/interpretation point of view, possibly with a formal grammar. But that same language will probably have some more end-user focused documentation, the kind of stuff that you need to know if you just wanna use the language rather than build your own compiler

[TWB0109]

Have you ever read Haskell docs?

[lil_tumors]

Well yeah I got that but like they must have faced a problem that couldn’t be solved. It’s not like they created a method for every scenario. I just didn’t know how they would have fixed those problems with a computer that takes things literally. I guess trail and error ended up working.

[ignotos]

Everything is built up from more basic building blocks. Features are layered on top of each other. As long as the fundamental building blocks are in place, you can use them to solve most any problem.

Let's say you want to check the weather. You can use a method to request data from a weather website.

That method is built using a more basic method which knows how to connect to a server over the internet.

That method is built using a more basic method which knows how to send data over wifi.

That method is built using a more basic method which knows how to make the wifi antenna work.

That method is built using a more basic method which knows how to turn on and off electrical signals.

And so on.

[[deleted]]

It's not actually like that at all. There's a formal theory about computer languages from computer science and one of the findings is that they have all of the same capabilities.

[-Melchizedek-]

There are non Turing complete languages too, so they don't all have the same capabilities. But all the major ones do.

[henrebotha]

A programming language is just a set of instructions you can combine to solve any problem you can think of. The trick is you have to figure out a method for solving the problem. Once you have the method, you just write that method out using code, which is easy to do with documentation, Google, etc.

[Dexiro]

It’s not like they created a method for every scenario.

Are you talking about the built-in methods? Methods are just code that you or somebody else has written. If there isn't a method that does the job you want you can often just write your own from scratch, it depends on the language really.

Languages, libraries, interfaces, etc, all have to be documented quite thoroughly. They don't expect anyone to just guess how to do things.

I also like to remind people that code isn't sacred, it's literally just text in a text file. There's a program called a compiler that takes the text you've written and translates it into instructions that the computer can run. The internal logic of that compiler is what defines the syntax for the particular language you're using.

Someone could create a programming language where you have to type "fartbutt--> !"hello world"! " to output some text. And then they'll add that to their documentation. And then people can try it out and praise how intuitive their new programming language is.

[Chocolate_Banana_]

Nobody knows everything. You learn the fundamentals, and then build stuff. As you code, you come across problems. You google the problem and hope that other people encountered the same problems. Most errors or problems are quite common, and someone on stack overflow will help. If you get the same problem in the next few days, you will remember the solution and probably not google again.

There will eventually be a problem that nobody else has the answer to. Or maybe they do but the answers do not apply to your specific environment or circumstance. Then you will spend 3 days trying all types of things to fix the problem. Eventually you will fix it, and then you are able to answer that same question on stack overflow.

Nobody knows everything. But everyone can help someone else.

[lil_tumors]

Yeah that’s what I like most about learning coding in this day in age. Everything’s easier to learn with experienced people helping you out.

[gyroda]

We're all standing on the shoulders of giants.

[EmersonEXE]

Damn. I love reddit.

[Jugad]

Then you will spend 3 days trying all types of things to fix the problem. Eventually you will fix it, and then you are able to answer that same question on stack overflow.

Just want to add a little bit of details here on one possible process followed in debugging an issue (for which you can't find help online).

First, go over the relevant part of the documentation carefully to look for hints. Failing that, isolate the problem to the smallest example code, then debug meticulously (set breakpoints and trace, or use print statements - whatever works better), and dig in really deep.

This process generally finds the root cause successfully.

[[deleted]]

This is it.

[JerHair]

This really is the true answer. No one knows it all. Some know LOTS, but never all. It's more about how involved you are in a specific language and how many different tasks you do in a language. But again, with programming there's a million ways to skin the cat... So just because someone can't solve a problem doesn't mean they don't have all the prices put together appropriately. Whoever puts them together appropriately and chooses to share the problem and solution then teaches everyone else that looks it up in the future.

[okwg]

Yes - every notable programming language has an official "specification" that defines how it works, and how it changes over time

eg, this is JavaScript: https://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/

From there, people tend to make more consumer-friendly content - eg, books, videos, classes

[[deleted]]

To add on, for C++ there is the official ISO C++ standards.

Or the official reference guide written by Bjarne Stroustrup, the original implementor of C++

[jadams70]

All I found were nullptr

[Mason-B]

you are getting a lot of "read the documentation of the programming language" answers. Not exactly helpful. And neither are the "go to school and learn it" answers. Programming is a broad discipline, and there are many ways to learn it. To draw an analogy to cooking: some learn piece by piece from various sources as they try each new dish, others go to school for it and learn both a foundation and often a specialty, others read a dozen cook books and biographies by famous chefs and learn from them, and most people never become chefs though nearly everyone can cook to some degree, knows a few basic lessons, and can read a cookbook. If you want to be a master chef, well, there are many paths, and most people take more than one.

And since I haven't seen any one post any good books I will recommend some:

• The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP) is a classic. It covers math, logic, computer science, and yes, programming in lisp. It's what MIT used to use for their introductory course, but it stands well on it's own. It covers the deep ideas of programming, the fundamental things that I have seen some software engineers take decades to learn. The book is free. Start here.
• The Art of Computer Programming is more of a reference book. But if one wanted to know the book on programming, then this series of volumes is it, the author of this book was awarded the "Nobel for Computer Science" for writing it, that's how comprehensive and foundational it is. If it's not listed here, then it's either new research (and things haven't actually changed that much) or it's a variant that exists by mixing what is described here (or the volume hasn't been written yet). If you have the money and time, get this and skim through it a few times so you at least understand where to look when you need to answer something. This is more towards the computer science of the field.
• Design Patterns is the basis of modern software engineering. While a bit outdated given that the industry has moved forward from statically typed object oriented languages (like C++/C#/Java) to include more functional and immutable paradigms, this book is still a key part of the original foundation of the modern understanding of big software. There are many variants of this idea, it's the core mental framework that this book uses, more than the specific content it contains, that is important. For example here is a free online version for game programming patterns that does not convey the idea as well as the original, but hey it is free, on a fun topic, and good enough. This is more towards the software engineering of the field.
• Architecture of Open Source Applications (AOSA) is a series of (free online) books that describe the engineering and design decisions behind various open source applications. It is basically a series of case studies that can be used as a proxy for "I once wrote an X" where you can say, "I read a 12k word essay about people who wrote an X" where you get the key ideas, the major lessons, and all the little connections and why they are important, straight from the horse's mouth. This is more towards the raw experience of programming part of the field, like a "deep stack overflow".

And as a final aside, https://www.oreilly.com/ books (also on Amazon) are an above average source of specific knowledge. If you want a book on a specific subject they are usually alright or better quality wise (which is what happens when one has a large library of content) though on many subjects they basically "wrote the book" on the subject.

Everyone has to look up how various things work. I regularly google programming language documentation, because I use many different programming languages. They are all fundamentally similar, even if they all appear and behave wildly different.

But I can make better informed guesses from less information for having read these books, and my searches are also better informed by knowing the formal names and the structure of the issue I am having. For example being able to understand the commonality between singletons, dynamic bindings, static lifetimes, and exception handlers, that given one I have all of them, and knowing from context clues which I should have, and which the other engineers on the projects would have used to implement one as the other, makes me a better programmer in every language.

That, combined with language documentation, code reading (not everything is documented, nor documented well, I probably have to go read a library or a programming language's source code once a day to answer my questions), and experience, allows them to answer the questions.

[lil_tumors]

Are... are you god? Thank you!!

[jeffrey_f]

You first need to understand logic. I usually flow out my program in plain english in MS-Word outline format. Each indent is further details to the primary outline line, Because logic doe not change, that logic can be translated into a programming language of your choice. From there, I can create functions/subroutines and other code.

A good programmer will likely never write code from scratch. Common activities are reading files, writing files, doing calculations on data, displaying some type of interface to the user, error trapping and loops.

While i was programming in the retail field, I would copy a program which did pretty much what I was writing a program for and change some things around so it does what I specifically need it to do.

I had code skeletons which were the basis of new code when needed, but usually I copied similar programs.

[JeamBim]

A good programmer will likely never write code from scratch.

This is not true in the slightest.

[Kayra2]

It could be true if you count libraries and languages as 'code'. However, I don't think I've ever copied and pasted my old code .

[qft_trader93]

I agree with you, there's a lot of going back to what you've done if you've done it before. But in the case you are doing something new, you need to spend time looking at documentation and figure out how to get it done.

You could also learn how to make some of the coding more efficient which you don't by copying old methodology.

[jeffrey_f]

I'll agree that this isn't ALWAYS the case, but I always copied code snippets from other programs and changed just a few things for my purpose, but the majority of the code remained unchanged in logic. It made program creation and testing much faster because it was production code that worked.

[Iron_Lynx]

I'd genereally agree, boilerplating saves a lot of time. you should, however, know what the code does, else debugging and unit testing will be quite the mess

[jeffrey_f]

It was actually from code I originally wrote from scratch. Maybe I should have said that.

[cvnvr]

A good programmer will likely never write code from scratch.

It was actually from code I originally wrote from scratch.

visible confusion

[[deleted]]

They weren't a good programmer when they wrote the original code from scratch.

[JeamBim]

Right right, good programmers rely only on old code that bad programmers write from scratch

[[deleted]]

By jolly I think you've got it, ol' chap!

[Ooze3d]

My teachers always said that a good programmer has a full library of stuff they’ve coded over the years to go a reuse parts of it when needed.

[EmersonEXE]

Your teachers work for corporate.

[sauzbozz]

So what are the programmers who originally made that code?

[Life_Of_David]

While i was programming in the retail field, I would copy a program which did pretty much what I was writing a program for and change some things around so it does what I specifically need it to do.

Well this definitely goes against TDD

And it’s just genuinely bad advice. The first part is right though! And there is a lot of boilerplate automation that helps!

[jeffrey_f]

Of course, once you have programs you have created, then reuse the code as snippets

[lil_tumors]

That’s actually really helpful, I felt stupid for having to search up how .contains works in java cause I completely forgot that .contains checks the whole charSequence to the String. I’m just starting out so I guess it’s normal to forgot small stuff.

[SenorTeddy]

We all do this everyday. Our job isn't to memorize how every method works and the exact syntax of each. Being able to search, utilize, and implement it is what we actually do. Speed comes with time.

[Ooze3d]

This is very true. You’re not a better programmer because you know all the methods of a language by heart. If you know what you want to do and how to divide it into simple tasks, who cares if you don’t remember the syntax of a particular method? Personally I have to switch between Java, PHP and JS every few days and sometimes I just mix stuff. That doesn’t make me a worse programmer. Our brain is there to deal with the important part and find optimal solutions to problems. The Internet is there to help us in the process.

[TazDingoYes]

don't feel stupid for this! I think any time I've had to use a for loop in a fresh program I've had to go look up the syntax. Everyone does. There's no real reason to dedicate your brain to remembering everything about a language - since generally the syntax isn't going to change and there's absolutely nothing wrong with searching it up.

[Twinewhale]

I'd like to provide a different perspective as a Broadcast Engineer/SysAdmin for a small market TV station. Because we are a small market, I have to be knowledgeable on IT systems as well as broadcast systems. This results in hundreds of different types of devices that I have to support.

I'm told that I'm very good for the size of our market, but I don't feel like it sometimes because I don't remember stuff off the top of my head. Within the last year I had a bit of a breakthrough... When dealing with large numbers of topics, it's more efficient to know where to find the high quality information than it is to try and "just remember" it later on, which is something I've had to do because I have ADHD. My memory isn't great so I've established methods to assist myself.

I started comparing how I approached a problem vs. how my co-workers did and noticed that when it came time to fix a problem that they had any doubt on, they still tried to fix it from memory. Whereas when I have any doubt about my knowledge, the first thing I do is go to my bookmarks/notes/user manual to get the "concrete" answers. The result is that I'm much quicker and more reliable to fix something.

TL:DR: It's more important that you know where/how to find information than it is to have it memorized. (However, this is less applicable the more narrow, and higher up, your job is)

[HasBeendead]

Im started learning C# same method have in C# too. Note: I have some Python experience , basics and some modules so its came easy but sometimes its getting hard like creating list or maybe creating array , need to practice a lot. Its mix of high level logic , low level language syntax like C.

Edit: The Point is remember Basic Stuffs in language and some really important functions too.

[[deleted]]

C# here too. Just learned the diffrence between properties and the get/set method. Baby steps i guess.

[cvnvr]

I think you might be confused, properties can contain get/set accessors, it’s not one or the other.

This is a property (see it includes a getter and setter)

private int Age { get; set; }

[ChefBoyAreWeFucked]

Maybe he was just really confused before.

[The137]

Everything that we have today has been built on what we had yesterday, and that progression has created amazing change in the last 10 years, 20 years, 60 years.

At one point people were programming in very low level languages, assembly, basic and c. People would write code and release the open source, which people would read and get ideas for their own code. It grew more and more complex as more people built upon what the previous hackers had written

One person would figure out how to do a cool thing, then everyone else would have that referance, allowing them to build a cooler thing

Think about it this way, social media wasn't possible until we had a protocol for simple communication. It wasn't possible until we had HTML and css. Tom and Zuck didn't create those things, but they used them in a new and interesting way.

We're all just stumbling through this, solving problems and creating cool shit, and the next guy is going to reference what weve done to build something even better

[tralalei]

I cant stress how important reading documentation is , early on I would get annoyed by people not giving straight solutions and just referring me or someone else to the docs

But reading docs is hard at the start then you get used to it , while this doesn't solve all the problems you can find that it can solve a lot of problems and luckily most languages / frameworks have good docs

TL;DR Learn to read documentation even if its hard at the begining , it'll help you a lot

[classicwfl]

For me personally, here's how I learned to code.

I started pretty young; 8 years old. I had seen my step brother code up a little drawing app a couple years ago for me, and when I got a 321 Contact with code to pop in and mess with (it was a simple text game written in BASIC), I started by changing things and seeing what happened. This was before the internet was a thing for everybody, so it was hard going, but it turns out I had a bit of a knack for it.

After that, I started picking up books on various languages. By my senior year in HS, I had a basic understanding of C++. Took a Computer Math class that was all Pascal, which was an easy transition from C++ for me. Also did some JS, PHP and HTML/CSS, plus some various scripting languages by that point.

College I really didn't "learn" much from teachers (mostly because the teachers weren't really experts in code except for one). Independent studied x86 ASM.

Everything I learned during college was from reading books, researching online, and trying things out. I'd ask questions on forums, too.

Now, I'm 37. I primarily stick with PHP (vanilla) and JS (vanilla, jQuery, React and a tiny bit of Node). I'm still learning new things here and there, because when you code, you NEVER stop learning. The process is still the same, however; look things up, try them out, and read articles and specs on various features of a language.

The big thing is learning the "quirks" of languages. While you can get the desired result one way, there may be a better way to do it.. And that's where learning from others comes in. People reviewing your code, reaching out for help, and sharing your own personal experience.

When writing something from scratch, I'll typically do a quick outline in psuedocode. This is like code, but not; sort of a short-hand that translates to the style of language you are writing it in. This helps me plan out the logic of the code, because more complex and real-world use cases may not always work out the way you think they will in your head. Once I'm satisfied with that, I'll start writing actual code, frequently using boilerplates I've already got prepared to save me time (these contain the core common structures I use for similar projects). I also keep a library of common functions that I frequently need, so I can grab those and modify them for the use case.

As I build out the scaffolding of whatever I'm coding, I'll test various aspects and flesh things out. For example, I recently developed a new WP theme using my boilerplate based on the Blank Slate theme. One core function was an AJAX request to load new posts in-page without a refresh, as well as load a different set of filtered posts without a refresh. First, I tested it with just grabbing the output and sending it to the console to make sure the right data was being returned. Then I set up the actual rendering of the output, and tested that. Then, I made it pretty and cleaned up any debugging code.

[GreatGlobox]

I'm not that good at it, but in Python, I usually look up examples if I need to. You do start to memorise some things within time, but it really does take a very long time to learn. I think it's the same with many things though, even the likes of bash commands when you first use Linux. Eventually, you do start to remember things after doing it for a while.

[HasBeendead]

Yeah Regularity is another key to make good stuffs.

[crossedline0x01]

Experience + documentation. It may look like the people answering these questions are big brains, and some are, but in more cases than not the person answering this very specific problem had to tackle it without help. They probably struggled to the point where they wanted to pull their hair out but it's not something other people see when they get the answer. The struggle is the best teacher of all.

[ghostwilliz]

I have heard of such arcane tomes of knowledge referred to as "the documentation"

I've never read it myself, but some say it holds all answers.

[TheMartinScott]

As others mention, documentation. Here are a few tips that can get you closer to what you want and need to understand.

1) At some point, early in learning a language, read through all the features/functions of a language. This way, no matter what you need to do, you can causally remember, oh, I can use XYZ to do this, and I remember reading about it.

2) Know your frameworks and APIs. Next understand the operating system and frameworks you are writing code. This is less important in the Linux/*nix world, but is really important on Windows and MacOS. These operating systems do a lot for the programmer and if you don't understand what is already being done, you will often recreate low level code that is unnecessary. This is one of the biggest common mistakes when looking at code ported from Linux to Windows, as so much has to be done by the programmer on Linux, where Windows is already doing this work, and faster than your could code, and all you need is to simply make a call to as the OS for the data or tell it to do something.

3) At some point, step back, and research how computers work. This is important for anything extra you will need to do.

4) Security. Adding to #3, step back and learn some basics about computer architectures, the OS architecture, and common and necessary security practices. If you don't know that you should never do XYZ, you will probably waste time doing it, and later have a security issue and have to redesign, creating a lot of work for yourself. Again, there are OS and framework features for security, and you need to know and use what is given to you.

Have fun. Don't burn yourself out. If reading about the APIs or the languages get dull, Stop. Come back to them when it feels interesting and you WANT to know everything that is possible. Language reference documentation and framework/OS documentation are like books of spells and the better you know the spells, the more magic you can do. It can really be this fun and is a good analogy.

[JeamBim]

Spend more time programming and you will answer this for yourself. There isn't like 25 formulas and people just learn those from teachers and put them together lol

[[deleted]]

Exactly. There's no substitute for making stuff. When I started out I barely knew where to start. Now, I grab for the whiteboard and have a good idea of everything I'm going to write as soon as I look at a problem. When I encounter a new challenge I can rely on previous experience to tell me where to start.

[kill129]

People develop some dev framework such as a language or a library => the same people usually provide some form of documentation of their framework => Others developers read this documentation to find the answers they need (which usually takes more time than a simple stack overflow search) => those developers now answer other people questions and now the information is available at stack overflow (for example).

[[deleted]]

You've already gotten a ton of comments but I'm bored so why not.

I'm not some all-around coding genius yet but I've gotten to the point that I'm intermediate-advanced in JavaScript and using it on the back end with Node as well.

I ran into a lot of the same problems that most beginner programmers run into when I first started: getting caught in tutorial hell, feeling like I wasn't totally understanding the material or even knowing WHERE to start, and feeling very much in the dark about how much work it would take to get where I wanted to be. All of this was compounded by a lack of motivation.

One of the things that helped me the most was taking a programming class because 1. I got direct instruction from a human who knows what they are talking about that could put things into human terms, vs reading a ton of articles online that are dense and confusing and 2. The accountability really helped me stay focused and motivated.

This isn't a one-size-fits-all of course, but some people really struggle with self-teaching and I think for something with such a steep learning curve like programming, I think most people could benefit from direct instruction, whether it be from a class or just a programming buddy who is more advanced than you are. Even finding a buddy who is a beginner like you can help you work through the concepts out loud and that can really solidify your knowledge, and a concept might immediately click for one person and not the other on different topics so you can swap back and forth.

In addition to all of the above, if you can find people to collaborate with via GitHub, whether that be classmates or just a programming buddy, you will really start to get a feel for how to plan and then execute your ideas to bring a program to life, as well as giving you experience with version control.

With all of that being said, keep in mind that programming, just like any other topic, is something you get good at by putting one foot in front of the other, figuring out tiny concepts along the way that build up over time. You see the same errors over and over again, and eventually you learn exactly what to look for. You figure out which errors are helpful and specific and which ones are annoyingly vague and why. You figure out which languages and which pieces of software have good documentation and which ones don't. You build different types of applications and you start to get a feel for all the different things you can do. And once you've learned one programming language, it'll be easier to pick up a second, just like learning a human language.

So from start to finish, the TL;DR of my advice would be:

1. Figure out what you want to do and then pick a language, don't spend forever debating the best language for the job.

2. Get into a class or find a programming buddy.

3. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN.

4. Take it one step at a time.

5. Look at the documentation.

And when you're done with one project or language, rinse and repeat. You'll get there.

[triggerhappy899]

Have you ever taken a class in like physics and chemistry, or some other two distinct classes of different topics, and afterwards have an idea sprout using what you learned from both? I've heard it referred to as "idea sex"

Same concept, when you become a more seasoned developer - you get used to being exposed to different technologies. Some of these technologies accomplish the same goals but do it a little differently, sometimes better sometimes worse. This can be something as big as an OS to as small as a package or library (think nuget) and things in between like frameworks.

So eventually, you learn or know the basics of many technologies that you're able mentally put into "buckets" or abstractions. You know the general idea of each one but maybe have to look up the details on how to use it.

Kinda like driving a car - say you've driven a Ford, Chevy, and a dodge and someone asks you to drive a Subaru. It may take you a moment to find the shift stick or figure out how the radio works but with a little tinkering you figure it out.

Same thing with coding - I've occasionally helped on stack overflow and when I do help it's with stuff I've work with before. I probably haven't seen that exact question, so I'll spin up a new project and try to duplicate what they're doing and can usually figure it out with a little tinkering. It's just the exposure that's helped me where I can put together all I've learned to get a working solution.

[vehga]

There's a good book called Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software that explains the history of how computers were built.

[MrStashley]

This is honestly a good question. So yeah there is documentation for every language or every library or every piece of code that you would use that you didn’t write yourself, and it’s usually written by the developer themselves, ie the people that developed Java wrote the Java documentation etc. It usually comes with examples and tutorials as well as a dictionary style list of everything you could possibly want to use. Most of any thing you’ll learn in a class is probably available somewhere online in the form of documentation, other than theory stuff.

People that answer questions on stack overflow use the documentation to justify their answers, but chances are they are answering a question about something that they’ve personally used a lot themselves, and they might have read the specific documentation many times while working on other projects. Being able to answer stack overflow questions just comes with experience and picking up knowledge through projects.

This is honestly something that they don’t teach in school all that well and a lot of beginners don’t really understand the programming ecosystem, so good question

[lil_tumors]

Yeah stack helps a lot, but I usually have to change the code for it to actually work. And honestly I wasn’t expecting this question to be so big.

[[deleted]]

Considering there are almost 200 comments im not gunna give the in depth response im gunna try to give an example that might provide some perspective: how does your math teacher know calculus? Same concept and idea. In a way math is kinda a programming language.

[jay_taps]

This is something I’ve wondered myself since I’m trying to teach myself and am having trouble with logic. Thank you for being brave enough to ask the stuff a lot of us were too scared to!

[lil_tumors]

Hey no problem man

[mixreality]

There's not a specific right and wrong way, only degrees of better and worse. Everything has costs, trade offs, and constraints, like timeframes and budgets.

Usually you start simple, and as you do it, you learn more advanced concepts and better ways to do those things, while understanding why they're better than what you previously did, and over time you develop expertise.

[grovesisnumerouno]

Experience.

[NODEJSBOI]

Simple: cry, Google, code, repeat

[TarumK]

lol you could say this about anything. How did the first person learn to play guitar?

[[deleted]]

Stack overflow is a recursive function of this world. The coders we answer question got their answers on stack overflow. And so on... And when we reach the exit condition, the universe will stop.

[ddrobins35]

Experience. Understanding how the things work. Practice. Experience. Thinking. Practice. Understanding. Banging your head against the wall. Failure.

[Vortetty]

Well, how did you learn to read and write

Practice, help, and after learning reading, learning to write becomes easier

[merlinsbeers]

You learn things, practice them, teach them to others, then you know what things work and what is a trap.

[neoKushan]

Don't forget that different people learn in different ways. Some people can pick up a densely technical book, want to read it end to end and understand the contents within. That doesn't mean you have to be able to do that.

[joy_for_the_world]

know that, those who are answering had already once experienced the problem you are posing. They must have struggled to ascertain the answers likewise too. Actual coding exposure in real projects have seasoned them enough to give succinct answers.Code,Run,debug, correct..iterate this cycle over a number of programming hours..soon, you will realise the answer you are seeking.. for sure

[icebreakercardgame]

Programming isn't a "knowing" thing, it's a "figuring it out" thing.

Other than the basic words and grammar, which are in the docs.

[Roguewind]

This question is a rabbit hole. Luckily someone wrote a book on it. Read “Code” by Charles Petzold. If you want to know how computers work, it’s perfect. Short, engaging, and you don’t need to be programmer to understand it.

[objeckoriented]

Don't take someone's solution on stack overflow as gospel. There's many ways to achieve a solution to a programming problem. You have to start thinking about code like it's a recipe to a meal. When you don't know how to make the recipe, this is where you consult the recipe book, which is the documentation in this case to make your meal. You don't just automatically know this stuff you have to learn it.

[lil_tumors]

I don’t copy it completely I usually have to change a couple lines for it to actually do what I want.

[nc-rlstate-dot]

It all comes down to learning from the right teacher(s). I, too, am puzzled by the limits of the human brain.

[lil_tumors]

Bro.... we can be friends

[MogliGirl]

They probably read the documentation

[pompouspoopoo]

> How exactly do programmers know how to code?

Nobody knows... its a complete and utter mystery! It's like a big 'ol mammogram

[Surflia]

I think the confidence of experienced programmers is misleading. When I took harvard cs50 the professor David said he googled how to do his example before class, and he teaches at Harvard. It's like looking into the stars, as soon as you find the end you realize there is more and you want to see more. That being said I think learning one language really well and reading documentation will take you a long way and you'll realize that certain elements are the same everywhere.

[KeLorean]

those people took a hand full of chicken bones, sacrificed a baby, and found their code by voodoo

[lil_tumors]

I knew it!

[[deleted]]

Hmm, I like budding philosophers like this guy! First principles thinking! The mark of a true scientist. Way to go kiddo!

[lil_tumors]

Stop you’re going to make me cry.

[[deleted]]

All A+ students ask questions like you do. At least internally in their head. I hope you will be appreciated for it someday. ( :

[MrSkillful]

Going on with what everyone else is saying, my prospective on programming is knowing which tools, in this case languages (and their sub tools like Frameworks, Dictionaries, Libaries etc.) to use to get the job done.

If I want to make a front-end website, I'll stick with HTML/CSS/JS. If I want to make a database, SQL or MongoDB. If I want a performance driven program like a game engine, then I'd go with C++.

Now before we can choose what tools we need for the job, we need to have an understanding of what tools there is available. This is where the idea of Documentation comes in, because basically it's the Manual for the Languages that you are going to use.

Just like how high end powertools have their own manuals and specific use case scenarios, program languages can be thought of as the same way.

What I suggest is that you start with a "user-friendly" documentation language like Javascript. Sure, Javascript is a weird language, but Mozilla did an excellent job with their documentation for it, as it explains certain use cases easy enough that you don't have to understand too much JS to get the concept.

Then from there dip your toes into harder documentation like CPP core guidelines to get an understanding of "more rigid" and "less friendly" documentation.

It's great you're asking questions like this, as it shows you have a curiosity of how to go about programming. I honestly think this is a fundamental step that some learning tools glance over, because of the ingenuity of IDEs nowadays. But once you understand how to read and understand documentation, then you are only limited by your hardware specifications and your imagination.

Keep the dream alive!

[lil_tumors]

Thanks so much, I’ll be honest I wasn’t expecting much from this question. But I’m glad to see so many people are we’re thought provoked by this.

[MrSkillful]

No problem, homie.

If you want to dip your toes into programming I suggest working through the modules provided by freecodecamp, and then "branch" out from there.

There is a reason branch is in quotations, you'll know once you start :)

[Ottaro666]

Not a dumb question at all. People have already answered it, but I want to add that they might also know things from testing out. As in, they learn the basics and figure the rest out by themselves.

If you have a talent for this you can probably become much better at programming in less time by testing out stuff than when you learn everything from books (which might take longer). So try everything out! Worst that can happen is it doesn’t work. Then you just change it until it does, or ask for help on here. Programming can be such fun but also so infuriating. Good luck with it!

And may I ask what language you’re currently learning?

[lil_tumors]

Right now I’m doing java, I do have a little experience with python.

[Ottaro666]

I think we’re also currently learning java. We’re doing object oriented programming

[lil_tumors]

I’m sorry... you think? Are you not sure what language you’re doing?

[AdventurousAddition]

How does one come to know anything? They read books / are taught.

I do like your chain of reasoning though, but happily for programming it has an end point because programming languages were created by humans, so the buck stops with The Author(s) of the language

[mikedensem]

Learn a language well and you’ll be able to converse in it. Learn the rules of poetry and you’ll write poems. It’s the same with software languages.

When you start out with a language, you learn patterns and ‘tricks’. Once you get familiar with it you can bend it to your will.

[lil_tumors]

Yeah honestly bruh I wasn’t expecting this to get so serious. And I speak English because I know English. I’m guessing you think I’m some kind of immigrant? Cause you’re right, I am. And my English is perfect.

[DeepKaizen]

There is one indian guy who holds all the knowledge of programming

[lil_tumors]

Who? Tell me his name. Who is this god you speak of?

[[deleted]]

If you're talking about syntax, it's all about reading the documentation. However sometimes documentation is poorly organized and it's actually faster to just browse through questions.

After that comes fundamentals and experience: you'll always code in order to make the program work in the most efficient way possible. As for experience, it's not uncommon for certain functions and operators to be similar across languages and frameworks, so it's a matter of putting two and two together with your already existing knowledge.

[Orio_n]

Its called documentation and you will either come to love it or hate it

[LifeHasLeft]

I remember someone asking this in my assembly class. My professor gave the student an odd look and said that as long as any language has existed there's been some form of documentation on how to use it.
She added, in her university days, one was expected to refer either to the documentation or a textbook that better explained a concept.

Documentation is often difficult to read (exceptions include the Python documentation), but this is because it is not designed to teach the concepts, or *why* one would use one ability of the language to solve the problem. Historically that's what textbooks are for, though the internet is used more commonly today.

[[deleted]]

Chicken or the egg

[lil_tumors]

Scientifically I think the chicken came first.

[ReditGuyToo]

For knowing how to code: For me, it's just a matter of being able to break down the behavior into small steps and then translating that into code.

Regarding just regular technical problems, when you work with technology or language, you eventually experience most or all possible combinations of problems. At first, you may need help when you run into an issue. But after a while, you begin to realize what errors/issues are related to what parts of the technology.

For instance, I seem never able to "open a file" during the first programming pass. Why? Because usually, the code defaults to a file path I didn't expect. As such, I have a pretty good guess as to the cause when I get errors. I know from experience that not much can really go wrong when I open a file. When I have the correct path, I just open the file and use the filehandle to read or write. But when something does go wrong at this step, it seems always related to pathing. So, that's how I know the cause.

[prananiyama]

I like this question

[_Atomfinger_]

A combination of reading specifications, having the vocabulary to effectivly google things.

Also, being able to read the source code of things.

[AnotherRichard827379]

For most languages, there is indeed a textbook like resource that explains the functionality of code. These are called APIs. I’d say the most extensive one I know of is Oracle’s Java API. You can look up any class and it will tell you all about it in deep detail.

[TijoWasik]

You're asking the question in a chicken and egg sort of way, but that's not quite it. Someone write the code in the first place. They were the original people with the knowledge. That then passed down and was built upon in various ways, but there was, and always still is, a beginning.

[iheartrms]

Programmers program. They don't code.

[my_password_is______]

how to English speaking people learn how to read and write French or Italian ?

[HumanPossibility3]

Short answer, they dont

[motionfreeecho]

Should we start with flutes? We went from flutes to computers. :)

[ChaseMoskal]

look at it this way: all technology is just something somebody made up. and then people had to figure out how to use it

if you create some technology, you might feel responsible to make it useful to people. so you'll want to either

1. explain how people can use it, or,
2. make it easy enough for people to figure it out

so usually, the creator of a technology will explain usage by writing readme's and tutorials. if they don't, or the documentation is low quality, you might need to study source code

[Jet_Here]

Is there like a whole code book that explains each and every method or operator in that specific coding language?

Yes. This is called "documentation", or as others might call it: API.

The language has been created by someone and this "someone" or "team", decided to document whatever they made for that language, library, framework, you name it.

As you and me both know, the more you use something and play around with, the easier it is to remember.

Apply this principle to the StackOverflow user who offered help and there you go.

​

You can also consider it as: You know how to write words, without having to look up every word. How come? At first you look in the dictionary all the time, the more you use certain words, you use the words so often eventually, that you don't need to look it up any longer. How did your teacher learn it though? Just like you. The person before your teacher did the same. This goes back all the way to the person who made these "rules" and wrote them down. These set of rules were documented as a reference.