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The line “coding is just if statements” really annoys me. I used to think this earlier in my career. It’s technically true but it means that you haven’t really
by thewarrior 5y ago
The line “coding is just if statements” really annoys me. I used to think this earlier in my career. It’s technically true but it means that you haven’t really grasped what makes programming hard.
The real challenge of programming is how you organize a million if statements in a way that the system can be understood and evolved predictably and cheaply over time.
And any tool that takes away the control of how you organize your code and allows for the creation of complexity without proper version control, debugging, testing and code review is doomed to failure.
No code is just code at a higher level of abstraction. No code works when you don’t need a lot of code to solve the problem to begin with. Which is kind of a mind bender.
- randomdata 5y agoCoding is just if statements, more or less. Programming and coding are different words with different meanings, though. What is the reason to conflate them?
- codebje 5y agoBecause 'coding' is just slang for 'programming'.
- randomdata 5y agoThat is not true, though. Coding is about writing code, whereas programming is the thought process that goes into writing code. The original comment establishes the same distinction, so it is not exactly a novel separation. The question was why then conflate them when they were already recognized as being different?
- lokedhs 5y agoSince this is HN, and pedantic corrections are popular, I feel the need to point out that "coding" is the original term. I've seen very old references where creating instructions for a machine to execute was referring to "coding". We're talking Jacquard Mills or Babbage machines here.
- tshaddox 5y ago> It’s technically true but it means that you haven’t really grasped what makes programming hard. It’s roughly as useful as pointing out that constructing a skyscraper is really just applying forces to masses.
- devoutsalsa 5y agoObligatory XKCD reference: https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/
- ElFitz 5y agoReminds me of this: - http://www.geeksworld.org/strip_982.html http://www.geeksworld.org/strip_982.html - http://www.geeksworld.org/strip_984.html http://www.geeksworld.org/strip_984.html
- wruza 5y agoIn case you missed this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29442307 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29442307
- isoprophlex 5y agoIt's a joke, yo https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFue_fIVUAMrSu1?format=jpg&name=large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFue_fIVUAMrSu1?format=jpg&name=...
- unbanned 5y agoHow unfortunate to be slap bang in the middle of the bell curve https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273