3 ms·
> Using documentation is fine. You aren't going to solder stuff only by eyeballing the component packaging either. > On-line information? That's another questi
by II2II 6y ago
> Using documentation is fine. You aren't going to solder stuff only by eyeballing the component packaging either.
> On-line information? That's another question entirely. This would be a more interesting test: can you make a basic webapp (or other type of app representative of your experience) without Internet access?
I would suggest that the type of information is important, rather than the medium. It is not that solving the issue yourself is better than talking to other people. It is a matter of ensuring the validity of the information as well as it's suitability to the task. That is more difficult to do without referencing language or library documentation, and I suspect that it is not being done at all by most of the people who rely upon searching the Internet.
While the quality of books is better (on average) than online information, one still has to be selective. The market is flooded with books that offer shallow explanations or are simply a rehash of what dozens of other books have discussed. Not only does the latter limit the breadth of knowledge, but the nuggets of insight offered by any given author are usually so deeply buried that they are easy to miss. Sometimes it is more productive to scour the Internet because of that.
- necovek 6y agoI've stopped relying on Google to give me reference documentation on searching the function/library name. I generally go directly to the API reference and do the search there because Google results might not even have it on the first few pages. I actually get annoyed at being pointed at the StackOverflow question that shares a few keywords with my search, but is completely unrelated otherwise.
- II2II 6y agoThat is similar to my approach, though I will download the documentation if it is available that way. It is always available, you know which version of the documentation you're using, and I never understood why an intermediary should be involved when something is referenced frequently. (Yes, I realize the latter is a personal quirk.) As for StackOverflow results, at least there is a chance that they will be more useful than most third-party information. I have found too many sites that attempt to rehash the documentation, perhaps in clearer terms but virtually always covering common knowledge and completely omitting everything else.
- necovek 6y agoI used to keep all the reference documentation downloaded and available offline, but at some point I got lazy because Google did give me the API reference as a first hit. I guess it's time to start bookmarking those /usr/share/docs/... paths again :)