coyote_dj2003 wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > My name is Paul McDonald and I am new to this group. I look forward to > learning and participating in the discussions in this group. I am new at > programming and I enjoy challenges of learning new languages and things. I > am wondering as a general discussion thread to the group, how do experienced > programmers start design and programming from scratch, and what does the > role of free code and code libraries on the net have when programming files > and programs for distribution, isn't there a certain expectation of enviable > discovery with code? I mean there is only so many ways u can display the > clock in the tool bar and to find the code on the web saves time, is it not > reasonable to use that code in the new program? And if there is lots of > people offended by the idea that code that is publically published should > not be used, what is the "correct" way to utilize such code in programming? > > Just some questions I have been dwelling over as I start to learn to > program. > > Your more than welcome to contact me directly with thoughts and answers but > for the benefit of the group I would love to see a good conversation about > both sides if they exist of the last question. > > Thanks for the time and including me in this group > > Paul > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Paul, First off, welcome to the group. Those are some pretty heavy questions for a beginning programmer. Clearly you have thought about this. While I have a preference for C++ development, I find the same issues in my arena. The problem with code sharing isn't so much that code is being shared. It is more that _incorrect_ code is being shared. By this I mean code that is buggy. Most of the sample code out there is meant to be used merely as an example - not a full solution. In other words, a place to start looking if you are planning on writing a full solution. Inevitably, you may start using such code but end up re-writing it entirely. Most experts merely glance at such code, assume it is wrong, and roll their own. This is particularly true when people start using Win32 APIs. So where does the newbie programmer fit into this picture? The main thing I can recommend is to NOT share your source code until you know you are writing good software. That way you don't contribute to the proliferation of bad code out there. Then again, if newbies weren't sharing their code, it would make the expert's job of making their software better by swiping the newbie's code and re-writing it a whole lot harder because they would have to do the work themselves. -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* VerifyMyPC 2.5 Change tracking and management tool. Reduce tech. support times from 2 hours to 5 minutes. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/VerifyMyPC/
