Programming so far...and a Question

[zodiac976]

I tell you the bigger my projects get the more errors that pop
up and sometimes stuff doesn't work like it used to but I still
love programming .

I thought I was almost done with my project now I am back to
the drawing board again .

I wanted to throw all my error-checking inside functions to make
it neater but now some of my stuff isn't working right so I am
going to just tear down the code and restructure it.

I tend to just jump on my computer and start coding up an idea
but my question is should I sit down with a paper and pencil and
right down all the stuff I want to do?

I was always told it is a good idea to have a flowchart and stuff
for your project but I never got into that stuff... even though
I know how to do it.

[MarauderIIC]

should I sit down with a paper and pencil and
right down all the stuff I want to do?

Yes.

[programmerinprogress]

That's a brilliant idea, i'm really hardcore and had a whiteboard installed :D

I tend to think of things at night, so I keep a notepad by my bed, and then iron out the kinks in the morning, it's sort of a "creative on the night, logical in the morning" sorta thing.

If you have some ideas, write them down, one day you'll probably be able to implement them, so, why not?

[MarauderIIC]

I tend to think of things at night, so I keep a notepad by my bed

I used to do that, too.

[Bakkon]

I tend to just jump on my computer and start coding up an idea
but my question is should I sit down with a paper and pencil and
right down all the stuff I want to do?

It's a great idea if you want to complete your program in a relatively decent amount of time. If you don't, you'll be refactoring and rewriting your program every time you want to add something new.

[zodiac976]

Thanks for all the input; I will give my programming style a different
approach...with paper and pencil this time .

[dandymcgee]

I occasionally jot ideas down in a notebook when I'm at school or something. More often I just keep a Todos.txt file in my project directory: update it with new features as I think of them, label the ones in progress as [WORKING], and write [DONE] next to the ones I've completed.

Really the only other thing I do is draw a ton of diagrams in Paint for figuring out coordinates and equations for stuff, as well as write loads of messy comments all over my source with ideas (this isn't always a great idea unless you're the only one looking at it and you plan to remove it when it's no longer needed).

[Arti-Ravnos]

Really the only other thing I do is draw a ton of diagrams in Paint for figuring out coordinates and equations for stuff.

Wouldn't it be better to use a piece of paper and a pencil/pen than paint? That's the way I do it (equations, coordinates etc)

I'm no good at writing down ideas and sketches myself, and always want to start coding right the way, even though I know that I'll regret it later. All beginner programmers who do it this way, including myself, really got to do something about this behaviour, because starting to code right away is seldom (perhaps I should say never) a good idea.

[Innerscope]

I was always told it is a good idea to have a flowchart and stuff
for your project but I never got into that stuff... even though
I know how to do it.

It is a great idea to create a flowchart. It can be tricky to create one effectively, but with good software (I like OmniGraffle) it's pretty easy to do.
Whiteboards are good too, but the limited space can be hard to deal with.

Either way, making flowcharts is a good practice. It will save you a lot of headaches and heartbreaks down the road.

[dandymcgee]

I'm no good at writing down ideas and sketches myself, and always want to start coding right the way, even though I know that I'll regret it later. All beginner programmers who do it this way, including myself, really got to do something about this behaviour, because starting to code right away is seldom (perhaps I should say never) a good idea.

I always just start off by creating a new project and coding some basic structure. I never plan the finer details until I've gotten at least my basic files created and added to the project, and written some API initialization code. As for diagrams those get drawn as I need them. If I'm working on some sort of functionality and can't figure out how the coords will look as a result I either draw a diagram, or add in some random data and output it to the screen/a debug file.

Everyone has their own preferences, for me it's definitely to solve problems as they arrive, because you're NEVER going to be able to predict every error before you start writing code. Very general design can be done beforehand though, and for me that's usually done mentally in a rather short amount of time.

[zodiac976]

I'm no good at writing down ideas and sketches myself, and always want to start coding right the way, even though I know that I'll regret it later. All beginner programmers who do it this way, including myself, really got to do something about this behaviour, because starting to code right away is seldom (perhaps I should say never) a good idea.

I always just start off by creating a new project and coding some basic structure. I never plan the finer details until I've gotten at least my basic files created and added to the project, and written some API initialization code. As for diagrams those get drawn as I need them. If I'm working on some sort of functionality and can't figure out how the coords will look as a result I either draw a diagram, or add in some random data and output it to the screen/a debug file.

Everyone has their own preferences, for me it's definitely to solve problems as they arrive, because you're NEVER going to be able to predict every error before you start writing code. Very general design can be done beforehand though, and for me that's usually done mentally in a rather short amount of time.

I usually do it like you do. I start out with an idea then start
setting up the basic pieces and throw in new stuff when it
pops in my head and all of this is done mentally, I am not
really fond of pencil and paper.

[WitchesRave]

When i was doing my project for college i used to jot down algorithms for my ideas anywhere an everywhere. I'd write them on anything close to hand and still do, my teacher was less impressed with the beer mat algorithms however

[derbon]

I tend to just jump on my computer and start coding up an idea
but my question is should I sit down with a paper and pencil and
right down all the stuff I want to do?

this is called design, and you should do this whenever the game your planning is to complex to memorize