There have been times over the past year when I have thought I'm never going to get this. There have been nights when I have awoken in the night muttering lines of code. What I really feel would have helped is a few friendly words of advice from a fellow wannabe geek girl, telling me it would be okay. So here are a few tips for the newbs out there:
Start with pen and paper
When starting any piece of code, be it your first short exercise or a longer project, its a good idea to note down your ideas on paper. May it be snippets of pseudo code, the odd underlined word or maybe just what you want your program to do.
The Internet your friend - but not your best friend
If you're stuck with something, maybe you're making a connect four game or a calculator, then chances are someone has written about it on a forum somewhere. Forums are good places to get ideas. The solutions you see on the internet are definitely not the only solutions. If your way of doing something is different, it works and you understand why it works, don't change it. Go with it.
Find a Friend
I have gal pal on my compsci course and she is also new to programming. Often we get together over a pot of tea and code. Its great to bounce ideas off of other people, chances are they've gone about a problem in a different way. Also talking to someone who is at the same level as you is less intimidating and I feel less worried about saying something stupid.
Practice
This is obvious but one thing I would suggest is to go over old programs and do them again but using different methods. When I look back at code I wrote in November, I just laugh. I know now that my coding ability is so much better and I can see different, more efficient ways of doing things.
Drink tea and have a cry
When things get tough, put down your keyboard, get yourself some earl grey and chill out. This works with most things in life but stereotypically programmers live off pizza and coffee. Not me. I prefer a good cup of loose leaf and cheese scone. If you need to cry about your code, go ahead. It shows you care.
BELIEVE
Sometimes I just think I should quit and do straight maths or something but then I think, no. You don't just wake up morning fluent in C++. It takes blood, sweat and tears (believe me). There is nothing like that feeling when you're finally in a position to have some fun with your code and it works. Moments like that is why I program.
