Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Walkman 2818 days ago
But you can do that by reading code of Open Source projects, which is more effective IMO.
2 comments
jolmg 2817 days ago
No... For example, let's imagine a developer needs to find the source of a bug on a big rails app. All he knows of the bug is that a certain line of logged SQL should be near the location. He knows how to trigger the bug. A simple method call triggers a myriad of unknown things, one of which is where the bug lies. He gets the idea to write a method that takes a regex and a block and temporarily override the logging method while the block executes so that it outputs a backtrace when logging a line that matches the given regex. The method is called, the backtrace is output, and the bug is found.

Development ideas and methodologies like that don't appear in code.

link
gitgud 2817 days ago
Well, you can learn actively from researching opens source projects. Or you can learn passively by watching others code.

The first is more effective but the second is easier and more entertaining.

link
Walkman 2817 days ago
I disagree with this. I think you are not passive watching live coding almost the same way like you are pair programming and you are the observer.
link
gitgud 2817 days ago
Watching a stream is passive, like watching a movie. Pair programming is interactive, as you are right next to the person.

Unless you're commenting on the stream, it's a very passive act of learning.

link