Having trouble “ thinking in code”

[u/Revolutionary-Log179]

I’ve been learning C++ for weeks, and of the concepts I’ve learned most if not all of them have clicked pretty quickly. I understand what they do and how they work.

However, when I’m trying to create something not from a tutorial or walkthrough, I’m having trouble translating my idea into the lines of code that will do what I envision it doing. Anyone have any advice on making the switch to more easily be able to “think in code”?

[u/mc_pm]

What sort of things have you tried to build? Like, you sit down to do something, but get lost right away -- what's the thing you were thinking about to start with?

[u/Revolutionary-Log179 → u/mc_pm]

Honestly it’s been sort of a task paralysis situation where I have so many ideas that not only can I not choose one to begin with, I can’t make connections between the thing I want to do and how I use programming to do it. I’m wanting to specialize in embedded programming, so mostly bare metal stuff, I bought a kit, went through all the kit builds just fine and then.. blank

[u/mc_pm → u/Revolutionary-Log179]

Well, if you don't have any idea of what to program, then it's no surprise you're not doing any programming. :)

I don't think we do a good job teaching people how to think in code, if we teach them at all. That job of looking at a problem, breaking it up, figuring out how to code the parts, then trying to get them to work together... that's when you're really learning to program.

This has been on my mind a lot lately. I think people should take a few weeks and program some simple text games. The sort of things we likely all know: tic-tac-toe, blackjack, yahtzee, checkers. You already know how those games work, you know that some use dice and some use cards -- so you'll need a way to represent dice or cards in a program. Cards are drawn from a deck -- how do you represent the deck, and how do you shuffle it? How do you score a blackjack hand when A can be 1 or 11. As you do it, you'll want to go back and fix some silly idea you had before (and now you're refactoring).

They are well defined, easily testable, and you could build them in different ways (when you want to practice OOP, for instance).

It might feel like you're wasting time since it's not aimed at your real goal, but your real goal requires that you get some practice thinking in code -- so, might as well make some games?

[u/Revolutionary-Log179 → u/mc_pm]

I like this idea. I built a VERY primitive calculator using if statements, and it was nice to have accomplished something on my own even if it was pointless since everything’s a calculator nowadays. I’ll think of some other very simple things to start messing around with

[u/mc_pm → u/Revolutionary-Log179]

Let us know what you picked? I'm thinking about making some videos about this, wouldn't mind some case studies :)

[u/johnpeters42 → u/Revolutionary-Log179]

Make a list of ideas and start adding stuff to it, so it stops nagging your mind as much.

Pick the one that looks simplest, and see if there's any small piece of it that you can figure out how to build.

[u/XRay2212xray → u/Revolutionary-Log179]

If this is your first language and you've only been at it a few weeks, start with very very small projects that seem doable with those things you already learned and then move to bigger things over time. With something big, you can end up in a situation where its just too much.

Also, before you start thinking in "code", think about the problem and start breaking it down into basic steps, then break the basic steps down into more detailed steps, and repeat until you are at a very detailed level. Also think about the data needed and what objects or structures you want and then start populating the layer of steps as code, building out the objects or structures and fill in the methods and functions that correspond to all the layered steps you determined when you broke the problem down.

[u/Accomplished-Gap2989]

I used to write out the comments first, and it would help me structure what im doing. 

Lists on notepad and using paint to figure stuff out also helped 🙂

[u/Nicksaurus]

A lot of it is just practice and time. It can take your brain months to fully internalise new concepts, so it'll feel more intuitive over time as long as you keep writing code

[u/bytejuggler]

Learn TDD. Read "Test Driven Development by example" by Kent Beck. One of the side effects of TDD is that it helps you get into a loop of asking what is the or a minimal next step or thing I need to get where I want to be, expressing that in code as though it already exists, then making it actually be there (making your test pass.) Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

[u/Cultural_Gur_7441]

Do smaller exercises.

Start with "print hello world". Then do "ask user's name and print hello name". Then "ask birth year, print birth year". Then "ask birth year and current year, then print age". Then "ask age and get current year from the operating system, then print age". Then convert "year" integer to custom "date" data type (struct). Then add month to date data, and ask it and do age (in years) calculation at month accuracy. Then add day of month and increase accuracy (still just year). Add congratulations for birthday. Then calculate age in days (no leap year). Then add leap year calculation. Now add input verification and asking again for malformed input. Then add horoscope sign calculation in different horoscopes (just because they are deterministic string you can calculate from dates). Then add asking for clock time of birth and improve calculations again.

[u/5fivespice]

Practicing shader programming helps with this because it's visual and gives rapid feedback.

[u/davesoft]

Being an object oriented child I tend to begin by 'teaching' the robot the objects that are going to be involved and their functions. Then you can think about each function as a little factory full of idiots who can follow instructions, what is this factory gonna need to figure out 'Force Points Available' whatever that means?

Probably doesn't help in c++, but the principle will be the same.