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Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,738 PointsHow much should try to I understand what's going on?
I'm getting a bit overwhelmed here. I do well when I'm learning the ins and outs of a language inside of a little bubble of the basics, but then when we get into building real things, and there's a ton of importing different libraries, talking to servers, I feel way out of my comfort zone.
I'm wondering how much it matters to understand this stuff. Do people just cut and paste the code that is necessary to get their website up and running, or do people really go and learn what all of these methods do, what all these keyword arguments do?
1 Answer
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 PointsThe process of absorbing all of the nuances is overwhelming. My advice is to explore what can, and cut-and-paste the rest. Over time you will grasp more and more details. At first there is so much "magic" code that works for "unknown" reasons, but the more code you see and as you expand code to your needs, you will peal back the current a bit at a time.
For example, the official Django tutorial is filled with "magic" code. But as you start to explore writing your own code, you'll be struck with many "Right! I see what was going on there!" moments.
When lessons and tutorials are created, the authors must balance keeping it simple vs over-explaining every detail. Otherwise, it they would all start with "read the entire manual...."
As for keyword arguments, sometimes a quick help(package.method) gives more than enough details on arguments..
Brendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,738 PointsBrendan Whiting
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 84,738 PointsMy current strategy is to go off and do other workshops and courses and circle back to this one. But this might be just a form of procrastination.
Chris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 PointsChris Freeman
Treehouse Moderator 68,454 PointsThere are a lot of leaps in going through Build a Social Network with Flask. This was my first exposure to Flask. I can see how much of it would be challenging if this was one of your first framework. I have a Django background which helped. Not sure if there are other workshops that would help if you've followed the Learning Flask Track