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Subject: Re: For programmers that their program is at least close to crafty level

Author: Russell Reagan

Date: 14:14:38 12/21/02

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On December 21, 2002 at 16:26:14, Uri Blass wrote:

>I believe that my talent is ideas and not programming.

Uri,

Think of programming as merely the mechanics of putting an idea into a form the
computer can understand. It's similar to translating English into another
language. Instead of thinking, "I have an idea. How would I do this in C?",
think, "I have an idea. How would I explain this idea step by step to someone in
English (or whatever language)?" I assume you know another language besides
English. If you wanted to translate something from your other language to
English, you could do it, and it would not be difficult, but it would take some
time to translate all of the text. Think of programming in a similar way. Write
out what you want to do in English, and then translate that into C. If you have
an idea, you should be able to write that idea in English first, then translate
that idea into C, or any other programming language that you know.

I know nothing about how you plan out your programs, but it sounds like you
could also benefit from doing more planning before the actual programming.
Creating a strong chess program has nothing to do with optimizing the heck out
of your program with all kinds of assembler tricks, and everything to do with
using the best ideas.

One thing I found particularly helpful was to write everything in pseudo-code
before I begin programming. If you write it in psuedo-code, and don't use
language specifics (IE don't make your psuedo-code look like C code), then you
can easily implement that function in any language, and your pseudo-code will
give you a good source to get comments from for your code.

There are many good books on this subject of not only how to program, but how to
program well. One I like is "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell. Surely others
can recommend other books on this topic if you are interested in it.

My point is, anyone can become a good programmer. Not everyone can become an
incredibly great programmer, but I think that anyone who has the desire can
become a very solid programmer. You certainly seem to understand computers and
have the desire and are very intelligent.

Hope this helps,
Russell



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