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Ask: Anyone feel like programming is Google Golf?

2 points by jamesmurray ↗ HN
The process of coding feels like golf.

I google to find out how to do something and I come up with answers some fractional value. Each time I then tweak my google search and look for the answer again.

These iterations feel like swings on a golf course.

Is this healthy and productive?

4 comments

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smt88
Learning can definitely be like that, but you use Google less and less as you become familiar with programming and the particular stack you're using.

There are also some stacks that have better tooling and less magic, so you end up using the docs a lot less. A good IDE (with autocomplete and in-line docs) eliminates a lot of Google searches, for example.

What stack are you on and what is your experience level?

jamesmurray
I'm using python/notebooks. I'm pretty new to this.

There's little auto-complete and the online docs are terse with few or no examples.

People say python is easy, but it seems like there's many packages/ways to do the same thing, which makes learning confusing. It's especially confusing trying to optimize/pretty up code. I've hit plenty of gotchas.

smt88
Choosing between libraries is a common, not-totally-solved problem. Some good indicators that one library is better than another:

- more recently updated

- more total commits

- more Github stars

- more closed issues

- fewer stale issues (issues opened a long time ago, but not fixed)

I don't know much about Notebooks. This may not help at all, but people seem absolutely crazy about PyCharm: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/

ramtatatam
Google is great when it comes to find out details about special corners of your current technology. And there is nothing bad about that - in fact this is the new standard when it comes to solve special problems. You use collective knowledge, you also contribute to the collective data bank by helping others. I love it!

When it comes to basics - those you pick up quickly and never google for them again.