Its a perfectly valid way of learning to code. In fact, there is much to be said for those who make the effort to be productive without needing to refer to ext

Its a perfectly valid way of learning to code. In fact, there is much to be said for those who make the effort to be productive without needing to refer to external sources for assistance - this truly is a valid way to do computers. I've forced myself to go off-line for many a debug/coding marathon, and it really works the more you do it. Of course its hard, or else it wouldn't be worth doing. The more you do it though, the easier it gets. Another thing about having a sources-only, no "google-fu" possible/only "local-scope-fu" policy, is that it tends to defeat the cruft. The bloat. The near-infinite gooze that I just know will be the inevitable subject of the response: "software is too complicated for one person to know everything about it, there's just too much of it, etc." (Of course, its a scope issue. You mathematicians need not flame me in response. I know you don't need to know how to write a compiler to get real work done. There are no absolutes; that is as true of software, unfortunately or fortunately, as everything else..)