Hey everyone,
What’s that number one feeling when you don’t know something about other projects than the only one you are working on? If you guessed scary, then that’s correct!
Why? That project that has already been in production for quite a while now, has quite a huge code base. This means that the new developer has to jump in and try to understand what’s going on everywhere! Or does he?!
If he’s working on one to a few functionalities, then I’ll argue that he doesn’t have to know everything that’s going on.
He just has to know how to utilize the tools that is at avail to him! It might not be the same code nor the same language, but the main components still exist within programming! These are:
– the debugger
– resources along with other developers surrounding him
– Google search
– API documentations
Let me explain.
In programming, I will always look to the debugger once the application is at run time to see the values of what’s being put in and out. I have the call stack, or stack trace as well to find out what’s going on with the functionality, then start to figure it out from there. Once that happens, I can think of a solution and make an implementation for it.
Your resources – these are the people who you work with. Imagine jumping in onto a project with zero-knowledge at the first start. You’d take a much longer time in implementing a solution more than someone explaining things to you at the start. Therefore, once you get your questions answered, coding it out should be much faster. The theory that also translates into plain and simple English (in the case of America, your country might use a different language) will also ease out the process of what needs to be done.
Google searching! This will almost always be your friend when you’re stuck on a problem. There are solutions out there on StackOverflow or even just examples to give you an idea of the implementation. Try copy and pasting (if the provided example already works out of the box), and then work out your own solution that the requirement needs.
API documentations – a must, especially for those who will be doing development for that platform. One cannot imagine how many times methods or classes become deprecated over time that forces developers adapting to new implementations. Sure, some of us might be stuck on something, but if the debugger works for that problem, then I’d figure that out first.
Anyhow, whether it’s your own project, or another one that you’re working on which has been done by several others, these principles still apply.
That’s all I have. Until next time!
Brian.