blog.zacbrown.org - just run away, now.

I was browsing the net, as I usually do in between classes and ran across a blog by Colin Percival. Simply put he asserted the importance of “Think[ing] before you code.”

His point is more familiar to programmers working in complex modeling tasks or trying to write efficient database transactions than it is to those who have been writing large amounts of “get the job done” code; that is code that isn’t particularly burdensome to the system but is necessary to complete a job. I personally do a lot of programming the modeling area of things since I’m a research assistant for someone whose work revolves around computational models.

Often the programs I write are more complex than my knowledge can compensate for so I often spend days at a time in my office reading up on the models I’m trying to write. Thus, this practice of “thinking before I code” has become a habit. Even for simple class problems, I may spend more time with a pen and pad than I do at my keyboard writing code. The planning out and researching tends to lead toward a more clear and defined goal than I would have developed otherwise.

That said, I know more than a couple programmers who ought to look at that article and take it to heart, in fact everyone should really take it to heart if they want to learn to be a better programmer.