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Don Clark
432 PointsDo working developers remember tags, rules, etc.
As I am almost done the first step in my coding journey I find myself wondering if working web developers remember all of the properties, values, tags, etc. that I just learned, or do they do Google searches when building a new site?
3 Answers
Ryan Dsouza
9,388 PointsNot at all.
Most of the time we use an IDE. They are basically development environments which have stuff like code completion, inbuilt documentation, smart hinting, etc.
Mostly I end up looking at inbuilt documention which comes on the screen when I am typing code to figure out what I want to do (Android Studio) and if I still can't figure it out, Google is the way to go.
Stay in there. Give it a few years and then the concepts will become super easy. It all takes a lot of effort and work.
Don Clark
432 PointsThanks, Ryan. As I have been going through the first lessons in HTML & CSS I constantly wondered aloud what I should be committing to memory, and what I can just reference later. Like "inline-block," for instance. It's present in my mind now, but if I don't use it for two months I'll probably have to Google it.
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 PointsThere's an old saying called RTFM (Read The eFfing Manual).
Hopefully you've noticed the instructors notes, and that, at various time they show how to look up the concept they are explaining (pretty sure the PHP arrays course looked up in the manual each array function as used).
I think it is important to learn how to read a manual in terms of command syntax, key words, mandatory and optional values. Then do the search on examples. The best part is that almost every time you research a topic you find an interesting tidbit that you can and will use sometime in the future.
Einstein sums it up best with his famous quote:
“Never memorize something that you can look up.”
Don Clark
432 PointsPerfect, Dave. Thanks. As I have just been learning these new (to me) fundamental tags and properties I know that I'll remember most of them, but the more tangential of them maybe not. That's why it has taken me so long to get through the early courses—I thought I had to commit everything to rote memory.
Thiam Hock Ng
22,131 PointsAm a professional developer. No I don't remember everything. Rather, I don't make an effort to make sure I remember everything (that's not practical by the way). But that does not mean I remember nothing. Certain things, once you use frequent enough, it will be part of your muscle memory.
I still use Google a lot. Knowing how to use Google to find your answer is actually more important than memorising the answer. Your time should be used in problems solving, not memorising.
Don Clark
432 PointsThanks, Thiam. What I found myself doing was being very tentative about moving forward because I had not committed all of the lessons to rote memory. I appreciate the reply. You are correct as I know <!DOCTYPE html> and numerous other tags by muscle memory, but there are some I have not. I am moving forward.
Salvatore Allegra
4,140 PointsSalvatore Allegra
4,140 PointsThey reference documentation a lot. Like MDN, the mozilla developer network. Or if you are a C# developer you'd reference the microsoft apis/class libraries.