[Coco] How do you program?

[Robert Gault]

Jim Cox wrote:
> OK, here's another philisophical question for the group.
> 
> How do you program?  Assuming you know the programming langauge you are 
> working with, do you just sit down at the computer and bang at the keys 
> like a chimp, or do you think about what it is you want to do and what 
> you what you need to do it?

Much depends on the language used for the program. High level languages 
may contain all the support functions needed for a program. If that is 
the case, it may be possible to just sit at the keyboard and write the 
program.

If a low level language is to be used to write a program, then some type 
of flow chart or symbolic code should be used to determine what support 
routines will need to be created to get the program to work.

> 
> If your answer is the latter, what steps do you take, meaning what is 
> your thought process.  If it's the former, how often is your efforts 
> successful the first time out?

Success will depend on your programming experience but you should never 
expect a complete success. You will always need to do some debugging. 
The best way to do that is to have someone run your program without you 
telling your tester how the program is supposed to work.

> 
> I'm finding that learning how to think like a coder is harder than just 
> learning the syntax and functions.

By analogy, it is simple to learn the rules and piece moves for the game 
of chess. It takes much time and effort to be able to play a good game 
of chess.

> 
> -Jim
> PS: Still would like to get opinions about how to proceed with my career 
> and moving to an engineering tech job.
> 

A good way to put your question in perspective is with an example. 
Suppose someone asks you to write a program that will generate all 
possible postage costs for sending an item from one location to another.

Would you know what you were being asked to create? What questions would 
you ask to clarify your job? What functions do you think you would need 
to provide in the program to create something useful? Do you really 
think you could sit down at the computer and create anything of use 
without doing a good bit of planning?