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I consider not needing to remember library and api details a benefit. I'd rather dedicate my brain cycles to something else. As for syntax, I don't recall ever
by city41 5y ago
I consider not needing to remember library and api details a benefit. I'd rather dedicate my brain cycles to something else. As for syntax, I don't recall ever struggling to remember syntax of languages I frequently code in.
Also the point about IDEs auto generating toHashCode, toString, etc. If your class needs these methods, whether they were auto generated or not seems besides the point. The point the IDE is "compensating for lacking language features" doesn't make sense to me, the code is compensating, whether a human or IDE writes it.
- dntrkv 5y agoYeah the idea that I have to remember everything in our codebase of millions of LoC made up of TS, JS, Ruby, Kotlin, and Java is ridiculous. IDEs allow me to drop into these codebases and be decently productive from the get go.
- nooorofe 5y agoDo you memorize all those IO/XML/JSON/Hadoop (HDFS/MR/Core/...)/AWS/Azure/... APIs by heart?
- zenexer 5y agoThe parent explicitly said they do not want to memorize APIs.
- nooorofe 5y agoI understand, I just wonder if he/she really means to it. Who knows, some people have very good memory. When I work with a new (for me) topic, I am trying to get basic understanding of topic, still it far from remembering exact method signatures.
- falcolas 5y agoWhy do doctors memorize medicines and their effects? Because it's faster to retrieve from memory than from documentation, even automatically presented documentation. It removes a context switch. The "brain cycles" are only run while doing the memorization, not while actually doing the work. > I don't recall ever struggling to remember syntax of languages I frequently code in. Because you've memorized it.
- elzbardico 5y agoYou definitely have no idea of how doctors work if you think they don’t heavily rely on reference books for most of the stuff they do
- dfee 5y agoI don’t think you’re being generous with your reading of their point.
- falcolas 5y agoYou can't easily consider a treatment or remedy or library function you don't remember. Better to use all the tools at hand (memory being a useful tool - a L2 cache as it were) than handicap yourself by only using a few.
- inglor_cz 5y agoI'd rather have my doctor consulting recent knowledge base than use their 30 year old memories from school. Medicine is not set in stone and recommendations change.
- falcolas 5y agoAs I've heard it, use your memory, then back it up with documentation if/when you need the certainty. You can't easily consider a treatment or remedy or library function you don't remember.
- loa_in_ 5y agoThe problem with using cache is that you can feel certain it's correct but you don't really know until you check with the source. And since you check with the source anyway, the cache becomes a drag to correctness
- city41 5y agoDo they have every single medicine memorized, or just the ones they most commonly use? Sure, I tend to remember the parts of libraries and apis I use often, but I'd still argue my editor having a reminder just a keystroke away is very beneficial.
- throwawake 5y agoWhen you start to work with too many languages frequently, using syntax from one while writing another is common and IDEs really help at this point. I too prefer not to remember APIs and methods, but with time, our brain starts maintaining a cache of these. Completions make this faster. That and error detection are only features I like in IDEs. For everything else, dedicated tools are often better (but not necessarily easier) than integrated ones.