Want to Get Better At Python Programming?
If anyone has done any form of programming before, this is bound to happen. We encountered a bug and no matter how hard we looked, everything looked fine!
Then we continue staring at the screen for minutes that quickly turn into hours.
Nothing changes, or perhaps things just got worse.
Take Breaks
Walk around, have a sip of tea or go look out of the window.
Then when you come back again, look at it as though you are encountering the program for the first time.
This technique shifts your perspectives and allows you to relook at the problem. When your paradigm shifts, your brain starts to detect the abnormality.
And sometimes, all you really need is a good sleep.
Breathe
While programming isn’t a sport that demands deep breathing, adequately deep breathing actually relaxes your body and pushes back any panic attacks.
Over the years of teaching both adults and children, it is a common sight when something doesn’t work, they panic.
Their breaths get shorter and they start looking frantically everywhere, clicking whatever they can find, scrolling up and down non-stop.
Well, stop. The great thing that everyone needs to understand is that programming frequently results in errors. It is perfectly normal to make mistakes. It is very common to overlook something here and there. This is where we inject the commonly misattributed quote: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal.”
Programmers of all skill levels constantly make mistakes, constantly ask for help and constantly refer to online documentation.
Like they always say, Google is your best friend.
Consistency
Just like going to the gym, the gains wouldn’t be seen in just one single session. It takes consistent effort albeit how insignificant they seem at first.
Day in, day out, work on it a little. Our minds are designed to recognise patterns. As you encounter a difficult problem the second time, you will realise that it looked very similar. After overcoming it a few times, you quickly form a tiny checklist within your mind. If the program didn’t happen the way you like, you mentally go through that checklist to see if it could be one of the same reasons you have encountered before.
Different ways of doing things
Attempt to do the same thing differently. You watched how your teachers completed a project. Or maybe even watched some tutorial videos, and tried it out. Then do it again and attempt to switch things up slightly a bit.
In programming, there are many ways to express your idea or a solution to a problem. It is also very useful to know the various ways to do the same thing.
For example, to do a concatenation, you can simply use a variable to hold the string value and then connect it to the sentence you want.
Alternatively, you can also use f-strings to perform a string concatenation.
Google StackOverflow is your best friend
Actually, documentation is. But the point is when you encounter an issue and you’re stuck, search around.
Someone around the world might already have had the same question you are having.
They may have encountered a similar problem, if not identical, to yours. Quite frequently, they would have encountered the same roadblock many years ago and the best part is, someone would have answered their questions too.
One of the main reasons Prgramly focuses on Python Programming is because it is an open sourced, high level programming language that has been widely used around the world. The Python community is huge and the usage of the language is high. What that means is, the community support is robust and users are actively contributing to the community on a daily basis.
In addition to seeking guidance from public forums like Stackoverflow, learning how to read documentation is a fundamental skill. This doesn’t just apply to Python but almost any programming language out there.
Documentation is like the technical manual for machinery. To use it effectively, it will be useful to refer to it every now and then.
Even experienced programmers often have to refer to both official documentation and community forums to get their job done.
Almost like a cue to conclude this article, remember if you have any questions, ask away. Happy programming!