What is the most intimidating part of coding?

Question

For me, there is nothing more intimidating than a blank page. I get this mini panic attack that I have no clue what I am doing or where to start.
I can read code and interpret it to a certain extent. Then when I go to write my own, I am stuck. Is it a lack of motivation to solve a problem? Maybe a lack of creativity? Or confidence? I don't know what it is exactly, but I think it is like learning a new spoken language. You can understand a lot and still not know what to say... thoughts?

Answer 1

Error checking.

Of course...of course there's procedures for this, but in your mind you're like "wtf, where/when/why/how are you broken!?"

Answer 2

To continue development from someone's code.
Sometimes very interesting, but often quite hard when I should slash a spaghetti monster.

Answer 3

Will, I understand your problem, the worst part is to start especially if we lack experience, I have this book "Think like a programmer", it is aimed at beginners and basically the point of this book is that we gain confidence in programming by gaining experience and developing patterns in our brain, so don't worry, the more you will code the less scared you will be when starting something new :)

Answer 4

It definitely is debugging, especially in cases where you are not provided too much info about the enviroment (my personal example so far is manipulating C-strings in a server-client situation, essentially creating packets to send).
Apart from that, maintaining a readable, understandable code. You can't just vommit that code so that it works because it's Art. You should follow at least your own guidelines as much as industry ones, like using templatization where possible (even if it creates problems, like in my case specializing it).

Answer 5

maybe, though I need some contact info @xperience

Answer 6

Hey can you send me that book think like a programmer