Coding for Beginners
Week 2 of Internship: Rubber Ducking
Learning how to code was a lot harder than I anticipated. It is not just about learning it but discovering the best way to teach yourself. Today I watched and replayed the videos in, Create the Player section. Things that might seem simple to those that have been working in software development for years, maybe even months, I found difficult. The videos I watched today all demonstrated how to manipulate the various objects through coding. It looked like the videos were moving fast. I kept replaying so I could take notes as I really wanted to make sure I understood the process, I did not want to miss a step.
Once I believed I was ready for applying what I learned, I opened Visual Studio yet again found myself stuck, and frustrated. Questions in my head floated around: Why didn’t the screen look like this in the video? Where do I go to start coding? How do I know the syntax is correct? You get the picture. So, how did I fix this problem…well, I used the software engineer approach, Rubber Duckie method — — used for debugging code. Except, I was the rubber duckie. My fellow teammate, Tony Miller, patiently explained to me what my code is supposed to do and went line by line with me. Through this method, he was able to figure out the inconsistencies with his own codes, and I was a lot more confident with my own coding abilities. Essentially Rubber Ducking got me on the right track. It’s pretty fun working with another teammate too.
One very important takeaway I learned through this process is to NOT copy and paste code. Instead, be sure to write it out/type it out and do your best to understand it, line by line. This is the way to get more comfortable with coding. Today I successfully moved my player and completed two challenges. My game object could move on its own when I pressed play in Unity and I also did user input which allowed the player to control the object. Eager to see what adventures coding brings me tomorrow.
