Ask HN: Was there a time when you realized you “got better” at programming?
8 comments
Could you share a few tricks with me?
I'm still stumped by bugs, sometimes for days
Sure. Spend a day learning how to use a debugger, and force yourself to use it until it feels natural. In the most common cases, the bug is in code on your computer, even if it's buried deep in some dependency. Even if you're working on a distributed system, you should have a local test environment and hopefully some sort of tracing capabilities. With a properly configured debugger, you should be able to quickly find the source of most problems.
After replicating a bug, I usually follow a process that looks roughly like this. I try each step, and if it's not resolved by then, I move onto the next.
1) Examine git log to hopefully determine which commit introduced the bug, in order to narrow the search space
2) Set breakpoint when the bug becomes observable, attach debugger and identify root cause of bug.
3) Verify that any function calls to dependencies are correct according to documentation, and any conditionals are working as expected (double check logic too)
4) Try a bunch of google searches
5) Read dependency documentation more closely, and read its code on GitHub to understand how it works
6) Ask for help in an IRC channel if available
7) Re-evaluate priorities
After replicating a bug, I usually follow a process that looks roughly like this. I try each step, and if it's not resolved by then, I move onto the next.
1) Examine git log to hopefully determine which commit introduced the bug, in order to narrow the search space
2) Set breakpoint when the bug becomes observable, attach debugger and identify root cause of bug.
3) Verify that any function calls to dependencies are correct according to documentation, and any conditionals are working as expected (double check logic too)
4) Try a bunch of google searches
5) Read dependency documentation more closely, and read its code on GitHub to understand how it works
6) Ask for help in an IRC channel if available
7) Re-evaluate priorities
When I started coaching a junior guy, I've been able to see all the logic, speed and wisdom I've learnt in time and that he still needed to work on.
Understanding and getting comfortable with alternative paradigms. Functional programming if you do lot of imperative programming. Imperative if you do a lot of declarative programming (eg sql) etc.
Whenever I get a bug in the production system and I have all the required information in log - that time I thought I became better at programming.
When I started learning lisp/Emacs/clojure I felt enlightened in a way I never did before with Java and Python
Most times I look at old code i wrote!
In my experience (self taught and also CS major), the best way to get better at programming is to consistently adopt a few core habits: Read good code, read your own code (I often review the day’s commits before bed), and prioritize defensive programming above all else. If you do these things, you will naturally evolve into a better programmer as you gain more experience.