How to get good

Program for longer than a week.

>>61321941
I already knew about basic structures like loops and conditions, it's not like I'm a complete beginner.

>>61321955
Doesn't matter. The answer to "how do I get better at X" is always to do X more. No exceptions.

>>61322002
So, as long as I keep trying it'll eventually become easier?
Should I even look up solutions or should I keep working on a problem until I get it, even if it takes a lot of time?

>>61321930
>When I'm stuck and look up hints or an answer to a problem, I understand it well, but I can't come up with the solution by myself.
That's normal. It takes a ton of practice.

>I can't "plan out" a program in my head then write it down, I just write it and make adjustments progressively, but often that doesn't work.
That's how everyone does things. You can only really plan out a program like that if you have made a similar program three times already. Anything new, you adjust upwards from scratch until you have something kinda working. Then you realize you took the most retarded solution possible and you start over.

>How do I git gud at programming?
Practice. It doesn't come easily to anyone. When I had been programming for a week, I could SUCCESSFULLY write a program asking the user to complete a times table, and grade the result; and that was about it. If you are aiming higher than that and failing, don't worry about it, and practice.

>>61322028
Nothing wrong with looking at solutions, what matters is taking the time to understand the solution.

>>61322028
>So, as long as I keep trying it'll eventually become easier?
Yes, absolutely.

>Should I even look up solutions or should I keep working on a problem until I get it, even if it takes a lot of time?
Keep working on it until you have a solution.

Then improve it. Take a break, then think of all the ways in which your solution is retarded, and fix them one by one. If that means rewriting your program completely, so be it.

Continue this until you can't improve it any further. THEN look up the solution, and learn how other people would have done it, and compare.

>>61321930
>Hey guys, I suck at X. How do I get better at X?
>How long have you been doing X?
>A week

...

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>>61322106

>>61322036
>I could SUCCESSFULLY write a program asking the user to complete a times table, and grade the result
Well right now I'm struggling on making a program that takes input from a .txt and displays a histogram.
>>61322055
I usually don't have trouble understanding solutions. I usually go "that makes complete sense but I couldn't come up with it by myself"
>>61322083
Yeah I'll do that I guess.
My programs tend to be short as fuck. Sometimes they work despite the solution being much longer, sometimes they don't but since I don't want my code to be bloated or full of unnecessary shit I tend to avoid making it long.

>>61322167
>Well right now I'm struggling on making a program that takes input from a .txt and displays a histogram.
Good. If you would not struggle with that after a week, you would be quite the genius indeed. This is something you should be able to solve, but not something you should be able to solve easily.

>I usually go "that makes complete sense but I couldn't come up with it by myself"
No way to avoid that but practice.

>My programs tend to be short as fuck. Sometimes they work despite the solution being much longer, sometimes they don't but since I don't want my code to be bloated or full of unnecessary shit I tend to avoid making it long.
Very good. The shorter the program, the less opportunities for bugs.

>>61322243
That's reassuring, thanks m8. I'll keep trying

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It takes ~10,000 hours of experience before anyone feels truly comfortable in anything with a high-skill ceiling. Programming for a week is what, 10 hours of experience if you did a few hours each day? If you're a NEET, then you gotta pump those numbers up. Set yourself a schedule and program for 6 hours per day. In 5 years, you'll be an expert.

You're going to feel like a retard when learning programming. You're going to talk to people who have been doing it for over a decade and have been through what you're going through. Feeling dumb and having to look things up is a good thing; it's the learning process. A loser will submit to the dumb feeling and say "I can't do it". Winners keep pushing on.

>templeos was written by one person over 10 years
>(you) getting cold feet after one week

>>61322574
I'll keep trying, I'm not gonna give up. I just wanted to know if it was normal to be a shitter at first and apparently it is, so it's ok.

It takes around two months of regular practice to become decent at whichever language you're working with.

>>61321930
If you've ever had sex, then you'll always be a subpar programmer. The best programmers are the permavirgin neckbeards who devoted all their time to getting gud.

>>61322002
Also learn exceptions
try, catch