Working things out.

Hi all

I would be very interested, as relative novice with VB, as to how you solve your programing problems. It would be really useful to hear how you plan a project and, more importantly, what you do when you you find out that more is required and it conflicts with what you have already done. Don’t understand? then don’t worry; you’ve got it sussed.

As you may have guessed I have a problem at the moment (more than the desire to write to forums on the internet). It’s a control that needs to perform two functions. The problem is the way the program is written ……

Rather than just asking you guys for the answer, I’d like to hear how you would approach a similar problem i.e. pencil and paper etc. I’ve worked out the answer isn’t just sitting fiddling with the code; or is it?:-\

Depends on how bad the problem is. Sometimes just fiddling with the code while stepping through it as it's running fixes things. Writing things out to a log file sometimes helps if the problem is spread out to a lot of areas in the code. Hopefully you avoid most of the problems by planning and designing beforehand.

Buy a book, first tip. Great things books, helped me a lot when I first started VB.

Personally I don't write stuff down (although a lot of peopel love to dry run things and I am sure it is really helpful, its just not how I work)

Fiddling with code on the screen is a great way to go. Learning what the error codes are and what the different error msgs mean. This way you can home in more on what the problem you are facing is.

Erm, thats about it from my side of doing things.

Fiddling with code is fine if the project is small and not complicated, but it's a very bad habit to get into as a solution to fixing problems. You need to be organized in your bug fixing. The first thing is to avoid as many bugs as possible by having a solid design to the app. I know most programmers just like to sit down and start writing code, but DON'T DO IT.

The question of books is an interesting one. Books, particularly VB books aimed at the learner, tend to be skills based; as you might expect. Admittedly, they provide examples in which those skills can be used in context. However, there will never be a book which covers all eventualities. So it is left to the programmer, as you point out, to plan effectively before writing any code. So, how do you plan a project – what stages do you go through before switching on the computer?

Also, I have noticed that there doesn’t seem to be many ‘intermediate’ books available. Well I haven’t come across many. Most appear to be for absolute beginners or for those completely secure in their programming and wanting to produce business applications. If you can recommend any books that have actual projects in them I would be very interested.

Ironically, it is a book that has caused my present problem. I already knew how to create the application in question, but wanted another perspective in order to improve my coding. However, on completion I noticed that neither mine nor the book’s application really performed in the way I wanted. The problem is the code now has a structure that prevents me from making a simple adjustment. I think I’m guilty of jumping in too quickly before really thinking about what I wanted my application to do.