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Ask HN: What articles, essays, blogs you have helped you master coding the most?
I'm just open to absorbing as much as possible from the experience and wisdom of others on the same path as myself. There is so much good stuff out there, I'm sure I've only discovered a fraction of it on my own.
Thanks for taking the time and contributing. :)
- coreyp_1 12y agoQuite honestly, the thing that has helped the most is actually doing it. In order to get good at programming, you have to program a lot, constantly challenging yourself. Build something big, then take a step back, see where it needs improvement, then re-code it with the improvements. That's the best way to learn.
- rblion 12y agoI agree, nothing replaces practice. Yet, I also like to learn about from the experience of product designers and developers. It's something to read as I start my day with a coffee.
- brudgers 12y agoI Assume I am Below Average: https://sivers.org/below-average https://sivers.org/below-average
- brickcap 12y agoI liked reading Joe Armstrong's thesis[1] on erlang where he describes what it takes to build fault tolerant systems. Though he talks about erlang some of the concepts stuck with me and helped me in writing code in other languages. For example one of the recurring themes is the concept of "intentional programming" that I found myself using in my code more often and it resulted in drastic simplification of ideas. His other ideas like supervision are pretty much tied to erlang unless you want to dedicate effort in "porting" them to your preferred language. The book is small (<300 pages) and quite readable even if you don't know any erlang. I also liked reading about programming habits from @edw519[2]. Especially the part about reading code and analyzing it everyday. Following his way I can pretty much reproduce the entire codebase that I am currently working on from my memory right down to the unit tests. Why is it helpful? Because if you have the entire thing in your head then your brain keeps working on the problem even if you are not. Faults in design and implementation are easier to catch. This practice of self critique is the second best thing to code review and the best if you can't get your code reviewed. It can also lead to "analysis paralysis" if you are not disciplined :) [1]http://ftp.nsysu.edu.tw/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/erlang/armstrong_thesis_2003.pdf http://ftp.nsysu.edu.tw/FreeBSD/ports/distfiles/erlang/armst... [2]http://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.pdf http://v25media.s3.amazonaws.com/edw519_mod.pdf
- Sicp 12y agoI honestly can't wait for the answers to start pouring in but I don't think there's going to be much more than this? I want to know too! As for me, I second coreyp_1's opinion as far as doing more and more programming to get better at programming
- kennycox 12y agoI amn't sure, but you should follow http://www.codeproject.com/ http://www.codeproject.com/ to find coding related solutions.