Do you really know it?

[wiccaan]

This topic doesnt have a set programming language. In fact, it includes anything that requires you to write out.. programming wise that is.. (Pen and paper not included )

Anyway, the question..

When your programming anything, do you actually know everything that your doing? Or do you sometimes look for references to help you out? Such as these forums, google, pscode, or anything for examples, and such?

I wanna see how many people actually look for a few helping hands along the way as they are programming any of their own applications.

[szlamany]

This topic doesnt have a set programming language. In fact, it includes anything that requires you to write out.. programming wise that is.. (Pen and paper not included )

Anyway, the question..

When your programming anything, do you actually know everything that your doing? Or do you sometimes look for references to help you out? Such as these forums, google, pscode, or anything for examples, and such?

I wanna see how many people actually look for a few helping hands along the way as they are programming any of their own applications.

When we developed for the mainframe systems we had 20 years ago, we had a $3000 documentation set - about 20 books on the internals of the Digital VAX-11 computers and the VMS operating system.

I had most of them memorized.

I still go for online help for how to use ADO or some control that I've used only infrequently.

In order to maximize the use of anything you must do the "R" part of development...

R & D means lots and lots of research - and testing - and benchmarking - and prototyping - and discarding what don't work and holding on tight to what does work...

[techgnome]

I heard a quote a number of years ago, and from what I've seen & experienced still holds true:

A good programmer knows everything. A great programmer knows where to look it up at.

Tg

[wiccaan]

I heard a quote a number of years ago, and from what I've seen & experienced still holds true:

A good programmer knows everything. A great programmer knows where to look it up at.

Tg

Love the quote. Deffinitly something I will remember for a while if not forever whille I program. Thanks for the comments guys. Anyone else?

[NoteMe]

I remember most of what I am doing. But what I remember better is what book, and what chapter too look up what I am looking for. I have 30+ programming books, and they are used frequently, both when I am programming and when I help others here on the forum. It is just too much info to hold, and often I just skim (SP?) through parts that I don't need at the moment, but later on I might need it, and then I always know where I have read about it.


So I guess techgnome quote yields for me too. but it is also importent to remember the research part too. Like when a new game is made, there is never anyone that knows from the start exactly how the code will be. And there is a new version of DX every 3month now, so research is an importent part of programming. Read up on the topic you will work on, and then test, and then deploy.


No one will ever know everything.




ØØ

[Shaggy Hiker]

There are several simple things that I have done often that I simply never remember. I have written numerous SQL INSERT and UPDATE commands, but I never seem to be able to remember the syntax for either one, so I have a book on hand that I can glance at when needed.

I have certainly had a few questions answered quite well on this forum, and gotten a few other references from here, as well.

However, I find that program design is more of an art than a science. You can read about the tools, but you can't read how to use them.