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Flavien Volken
Coding is hard, this is normal, if you love it just continue working on:
Adapt the level
Try a coding language where you have quick visual feedback (swift, javascript) this is rewarding and helps understanding the process behind.
Also those languages have nice debugging tools.
Use the right tools
Stop writing into emacs, you need proper tools which will prompt you when you type a mistake, this before at compilation time (when applicable). I personally use Netbeans for Javascript (if you are looking for javascript you might love the typescript language which enable linting for strong typing and classes), Xcode obviously for Swift.
Understand the problem
Do not start coding before you understand what you are going to do: make flow diagrams, schema, write pseudo code.
Look at the API you intend to use, what are they really doing ?
What do you mean by "I suck at programming" ? Is your app crashing or you are just unable to write anything ? If the quality of your product matters you should be considering:
Learn the design patterns
Yes, do not reinvent the wheel, just use the best practices for doing what you thought you were the first coder ever to implement.
Software design pattern
Write better code
Improve your readability, a good coder write code that other humans can read. I can only recommend reading "Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code". It is important to understand what is a good piece of code and why. How would you be able to write nice code by yourself otherwise ?
A software is a project
Understand how to deal with a project. You have the idea, the the requirement, the specifications, the documentation, the implementation, the testing phase and the deployment. (summarised). Many principles of project management can be applied on software development. Want to have some excellent reading ? I would just recommend "201 Principles of Software Development" If conversely you are looking for a boring but sound reading about project management, the bible is the "PMBOK"
Improve the user experience
Let's consider now you are just building bad products, i.e. products people cannot use… the key is to read some good stuff about user experience, consider taking a course on udemy or buying a nice book.
Those are few things I would teach myself 15 years ago if I could. Again, coding is hard. Last advise, do not try to impress yourself in writing short compact code doing as many things as possible in the smallest amount of lines. A compact code is not always the best. The cleanest you code the best for the future and your understanding on how to make your code evolve.
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Coding is hard, this is normal, if you love it just continue working on:
Adapt the level
Try a coding language where you have quick visual feedback (swift, javascript) this is rewarding and helps understanding the process behind.
Also those languages have nice debugging tools.
Use the right tools
Stop writing into emacs, you need proper tools which will prompt you when you type a mistake, this before at compilation time (when applicable). I personally use Netbeans for Javascript (if you are looking for javascript you might love the typescript language which enable linting for strong typing and classes), Xcode obviously for Swift.
Understand the problem
Do not start coding before you understand what you are going to do: make flow diagrams, schema, write pseudo code.
Look at the API you intend to use, what are they really doing ?
What do you mean by "I suck at programming" ? Is your app crashing or you are just unable to write anything ? If the quality of your product matters you should be considering:
Learn the design patterns
Yes, do not reinvent the wheel, just use the best practices for doing what you thought you were the first coder ever to implement.
Software design pattern
Write better code
Improve your readability, a good coder write code that other humans can read. I can only recommend reading "Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code". It is important to understand what is a good piece of code and why. How would you be able to write nice code by yourself otherwise ?
A software is a project
Understand how to deal with a project. You have the idea, the the requirement, the specifications, the documentation, the implementation, the testing phase and the deployment. (summarised). Many principles of project management can be applied on software development. Want to have some excellent reading ? I would just recommend "201 Principles of Software Development" If conversely you are looking for a boring but sound reading about project management, the bible is the "PMBOK"
Improve the user experience
Let's consider now you are just building bad products, i.e. products people cannot use… the key is to read some good stuff about user experience, consider taking a course on udemy or buying a nice book.
Those are few things I would teach myself 15 years ago if I could. Again, coding is hard. Last advise, do not try to impress yourself in writing short compact code doing as many things as possible in the smallest amount of lines. A compact code is not always the best. The cleanest you code the best for the future and your understanding on how to make your code evolve.
See Questions On Quora
Continue reading...
