Don’t just copy and paste

It’s true that these days you can find out how to do just about anything on the internet. From the most complicated problem to what you might you might find nonsensical. Since the time I first started searching for stuff I figure whatever problem you’re encountering now, more than likely someone has before you and figured it out. Now this is great, but if you just carelessly copy and paste, then move on then you’re missing out on why people have written such detailed tutorials.

Developers who just copy source code without understanding it are only hurting themselves by building up their skills on a weak foundation. As the age old analogy goes, it’s like building a house on shifting sand. It’s much better to have a solid understanding of how and why things work the way they do. If you understand the logic behind doing something a certain way then you not only can do it again but you can modify it if you need to or if it doesn’t work the same way as it should you can understand why.

So next time before you simply copy and paste code to complete a project, look through that code, dissect it, tear it apart and put it back together again. By the time you are done with it, you have learned something and feel a lot better about staying afloat in this ever changing field. Thoughts?

by Le-Andris Daniel