So yeah remember how I was talking about keeping my code simple? Well it turns out it was overtly complex by probably a factor of 4 or more.
What happened was my very first attempt did not work and I assumed it was due to it being a technically incorrect way of doing it rather than I just did a bad job and it didn't work!
Because of this I ended up trying three different ways until the third way actually worked.
I guess I have to chalk this up to lack of experience because I was sharing my story with a coworker who is also learning programming and when I explained that the first method had not worked he responded with a confused "Why not?! That totally sounds like it should work?
This made me go back and retry it..
And indeed it does work.
So lessons learned:
1: Making something that works is better than something that doesn't work.
2: The simple solution may be the right solution.
3: If something doesn't work it might be "my error" rather than "this idea doesn't work".
4: Bouncing ideas, problems, and issues around with people who understand your topic are is very useful.
I think I skip the last one too often - I'm learning to program "self taught" not "in a void" where there is no help or community to bounce things off of!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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