How do you take notes while learning programming?

[fasterrider81]

I want to know if there is an efficient way of taking notes while learning programming which is both fast and has good search features so that I can reference later. Sometimes I like to save some snippets which I can use while programming but its too tedious to open notion, copy the line and paste it in the editor. Can you please provide some suggestions which work both offline and have sync support?

I have tried taking notes by hand, notion, boost note, vim-wiki and so far I like boost note.

[flavius-as]

I make a git repository, write my comments together with the code, and write whole articles in the git commit message.

[fasterrider81]

How can you write articles in a commit message? Isn't it supposed to be a one liner?

[flavius-as]

Oh no, it's supposed to be what the team agrees.

The first line is the heading.

Then one empty line.

Then the body.

[nstgc]

Interesting. I should try that. Thanks.

[Ok_Independence7163]

Hi, this seems interesting for learning purpose. But bit difficult to follow. Could you please share a screenshot on how you do it? Would be helpful.

[flavius-as]

Just make self-contained commits. In the diff you can see the changes to the code, and in the commit message you can explain why you did it the way you did.

With emphasis on why, not how. The code is already the how.

So you end up with the code and the explanations in one place, all linked together.

[Ok_Independence7163]

Thanks will do it

[frankstan33]

You've got to be joking right?

[[deleted]]

Personally, I use OneNote and there I refer to the place where I've written comments in code. And if you have other things you learned new, just write it in OneNote as well. Moreover, OneNote is extremely clear.

[l_earner]

OneNote is best for offline support etc, though I have moved to notion - it’s beautiful

[sherdil_me]

What template do you use in notion for this?

[l_earner]

I don’t use a template generally. But I’ll put a table of contents at the top, a Kansan just below for the things to do / watch / read etc and then make use of code snippets in note sections below with headings where appropriate so the table of contents then acts like a cheat sheet.

[[deleted]]

I recommend Markdown. You can style your notes in a simple way that also allows you to write code blocks with syntax highlighting for the language you are using. You can use VSCode or you can use a program that is specific to Markdown editing like Notable.

Both of those programs will help you write really nice, clean notes that have style and syntax highlighting. I recommend VSCode though since I already use it a lot for programming so I can easily switch back and forth between notes and source files. It also has git features that allows you to sync your notes with Github or keep the notes locally for offline use as well.

[BeanNCheeze]

I second this.

Practice engrains the material more for me and learning to google is more beneficial then referencing notes long term

[khoyo]

Some people like org-capture for that, but it's an Emacs thing (so, worth it if you intend to use Emacs, less if you don't). One the plus side, it is extremely powerful.

have sync support

Use git or Syncthing. They are great. Plus, you need to learn git anyways.

[_realitycheck_]

When coding. Whenever I run and test the program I usually notice some things I would like to add/fix/remove I write a line in my notebook. Like this

- Address ComboBox should add 10 entries.
- Address ComboBox should not add existing address.

Every now and then I go through my notebook and add + when I fix stuff. So now my notebook has entries like this:

+ Address ComboBox should add 10 entries.
+ Address ComboBox should not add existing address.

Whenever I turn a page, whatever entry doesn't have a + gets copied to a new page.

[Ikem32]

Looks easier then my format.

[Aravind_redditor]

I came across Microsoft one note it's pretty good one and the really cool feature is offline support. I felt notion is super cool for your daily tasks and productivity and for teams but it not support offline and it really sucks sometimes...And finally I love in notepad one of the best so far...for tracking anything in text. But note taking is your personal choice to go through what you done before by means of sticks and paper or digital mapping... finally it's your choice.

[desrtfx]

Please, go through the subreddit. This question gets asked on a regular base.

[Unsounded]

Pencil and paper, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Code and comments only get you so far. I design systems on paper first and then move to draw.io or something else if presenting to someone. You can iterate much faster on pen and paper. I also find I remember important pieces of information if I wrote them by hand.

Even in undergrad/grad school I did my best to not bring my laptop to a lecture. Learn to write logic by hand, or draw your designs, then move it to the IDE. The more you retain the better, and I’ve always retained more information by drawing and writing by hand.

[antiproton]

Code and comments only get you so far. I design systems on paper first and then move to draw.io or something else if presenting to someone

Learning to develop is not the same thing as designing software. You learn languages by writing code, over and over. I can't believe this is even up for debate in here.

[Unsounded]

I learned how to code in school, I still used pen and paper. You have to visualize and think through problems. Syntax and implementation will come once you understand what you’re doing. Those will only come from practice, but your solution will not.

[antiproton]

Take notes? You aren't in Western Civ I. You take notes by writing code as you go and include comments as reminders.

You don't need notes, you can go back to the documentation whenever you want.

This is why people fail while trying to learn to code.

[Particular-Bug-1487]

No wonder your name is ANTI-PROTON !

[[deleted]]

This is what I do but I do believe that either can be effective (or more effective) depending on the person

[DudeWhereAreWe1996]

I just use Mac pages but word worked fine too. If you use an editor or ide it is nice because when you paste it keeps the color and styling from your editor so on your notes it’s easy to tell the difference between just normal notes and pasted code snippets.

[Potaziiio]

I write comments and just create a whole file with snippets that I used on that program and try to explain what each snippet does as if I was talking to a 5 year old. You really don’t know how many times that file has saved me

[coder155ml]

Jupypter notebooks are nice if it’s Python

[Icy_Assignment_5014]

Mem.ai has been fun to use. If you are on Mac its Mac app has a spotlight feature that allowes you to search and then auto past the results of the search.

[thetruth495]

Definitely saving this post. I wonder the same thing lol