Insecure about coding

[Cruorzy]

Hey,

 

I dont want to make a whole story out of it, but i started to learn some HTML and going to PHP now.

I noticed the thing i can get done are really awesome, and im considering to make this something i want to do.

But i dont think i've got it in me to just write alot of code from scratch, like i imagine a coder that works for example at facebook does.

For example i have been busy with getting stuff out of a MySQL database and  let it display.

But i always find myself looking stuff up that i have already done 1 or 2 times, my question is this bad? since started IT i always had that thing i had to hear it once and i just knew it.

Seems different in coding, later on i want to get to C etc.

 

I am 21 now now about to hit 22 and still not sure what i want to do in IT, this seems really awesome and i can even work on a project for hours long multiple days.

 

Thanks.

[as96]

7 minutes ago, Cruorzy said:

But i always find myself looking stuff up that i have already done 1 or 2 times, my question is this bad?

Don't worry it's completely normal especially when you are just beginning to learn something new.

There's nothing wrong with looking at the documentation or some of your old work, just keep going and good luck!

[Xilarnis]

As an experienced programmer(7+ years) I can say that programming is extremely stressful and takes time, patience and "balls of steel", but frustration is a good sign it shows that you are productive and it drives you forward, also coding can be very slow TV-shows are unreal and full of s*it, but with experience comes lighting fast coding, so just stick with it and results will come

[vorticalbox]

when i do something i save the code so i can look at it later. Nothing wrong with looking back at old projects and code or even using them as a basic to build on.

[Nuluvius]

9 hours ago, Cruorzy said:

But i always find myself looking stuff up that i have already done 1 or 2 times, my question is this bad?

Honestly you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I'm proficient in a wide array of things which I use daily out in the industry and I still have to spend time looking stuff up that I've done many times before. It's completely normal and all of my collogues do the same - I don't know a Software Developer/Engineer who doesn't.

9 hours ago, Cruorzy said:

But i dont think i've got it in me to just write alot of code from scratch, like i imagine a coder that works for example at facebook does.

Why do you doubt yourself so? The only difference is familiarity with design and engineering principles as well as frameworks and APIs... The only way that comes is with experience over time. The single most important thing that you you need right now is a desire to program. The strength of that desire will be directly proportional to the strength of your drive to progress. It's that simple and all you need to do is believe in yourself.

[Cruorzy]

Thanks for the reply's, it is kinda pushing me to learn more about it and atleast try it.

 

Since i was 14 or 16 or something i used to play private servers MMO's and you will always see what the Developers can do with their skills, so i decided at that time to take a look and managed to do some HTML and PHP, but since i still was addicted to gaming alot and multiple hours i never did sit 3 hours straight for it and learn stuff.

That has changed now, Even i never touched languages like C/Ruby/Java (what will still come when i see a reason for it) it always seems thing were easy to crack/hack/inject.

 

So a few weeks ago i started again took like Lynda courses just sat in my chair and take as much as information, then i found a project.

I decided to make a website for someone with things like a gallery/news page/videos.

It all worked out, i managed to setup a database that stores info where the picture is saved and even gets renamed when uploaded (its cool to learn those tricks and think about that sort of simple things)

 

But i quickly found out i needed a login system, here is where i get my doubts since most "private servers" were easy to inject with sql injections or other tricks that i dont know of.

So i learned a bit of what encryption i should use and how to hash, how to salt. even read a bit about a secret key or something.

But im still afraid to make such a system get confident about that piece of work because it may work. use it over and over again for projects.

And then it seems its easy to manipulate.

 

I did not start on that login system yet, also ordered a Pi with some modules to get into things like Python and just get a bit of knowledge about some populair languages.

Anyways there is not really a question in this post so i thought a bit on how to continu with my first project, Im thinking about getting back in that mmo section create a website.

Post it on those forums with the hope some expierence people will take a quick look at it to say if im doing things wrong? or i need to think about certain escapes.

 

Is this a good way? i think it is alright since you help people with your releases when you get better and better at it, and they can make use of it, sounds like a win win.

[madknight3]

Many popular frameworks provide authentication functionality (among other things). Some PHP information on the topic here. You might want to consider going with one of them as it'll likely be more secure than doing everything from scratch yourself. For PHP, Laravel is a popular option these days (source) and I've seen it recommended before so I would probably give that a try first. It certainly doesn't hurt to give the other popular options a try either and see which you like best but that's up to you.

[Bacon8tor]

Dont be Insecure, I am all self taught, am now a It Director for a medium size HVAC company, I still look up stuff I "should" know , but I rather look them up and do it right the first time(which rarely happens) but when it does feels amazing. Keep with it, dont let something not working beat you, when I started I use to spend days on bugs that may have been cause by a simple punctuation mark in the wrong place or missing. Just keep with it. 

[deviant88]

i started 2 years ago and still have no idea what im doing most of the time

[Cruorzy]

Well i'll keep trying then, thought it was just not meant for me.

But maybe i just cant say that right now and only can see that in the long run.

 

Thanks guys.

[Brenz]

As others have said everyone does this. I'm 23 and a software engineer (mostly PHP) for a FTSE 100 company and I do this all the time along with my colleagues. That's what documentation is there for after all.

[Cruorzy]

Update : What has happend since March 2016 

 

This post is over a year old where i started PHP, since it has a clickbait title for new people to coding I want to add this.

 

The last 14 months since I started has been awesome learning something like Web development, i havent coded all those 14 months long but tried to do it most of the time in my free time. So lets say i've got 6/8 months where i tried to code every day for 6+ hours.

 

I do encourage new people to start even if it looks hard which it really isn't, you can make it hard for yourself but the entry level is quite low. Picking the language is the problem most new people meet the first time. There are better languages compared to others. I believe this is true. But you dont want to learn the language, you want to learn basic programming concepts. Those concepts are shared over languages everywere that you mainly encouter. Like PHP C# Python etc.

 

I picked PHP and still trying to improve it (specially the OOP concepts).

The reason does not matter since it is personal, at the time i thought it was a good enough language to step into and yes i could have picked something else like Python for web development. PHP brings bad practices but so do other languages like Java there are always cons and pros but at one time you have to pick something else you will never start.

Considering languages and thinking it was way to hard have hold me back since I was.

 

On 11-3-2016 at 9:57 AM, Cruorzy said:

Since i was 14 or 16

 

TLDR

 

I can make stuff... maybe not so nice and elegant some other people do, but it works. And daily improve myself to make myself able to make nice and good code.

 

If you are considering to code, there is no harm in trying it out. And you have to start somewhere.

[SilicateWielder]

On 3/11/2016 at 6:56 AM, Bacon8tor said:

Dont be Insecure, I am all self taught, am now a It Director for a medium size HVAC company, I still look up stuff I "should" know , but I rather look them up and do it right the first time(which rarely happens) but when it does feels amazing. Keep with it, dont let something not working beat you, when I started I use to spend days on bugs that may have been cause by a simple punctuation mark in the wrong place or missing. Just keep with it. 

I still have major problems with missing punctuation marks and making silly typos... And I've been programming for 9 years now. And as infuriating/embarrassing as it can be to have something suddenly stop working, and have no idea why it stopped working to begin with, sometimes I find that these mistakes can push me to write code that makes the overall project easier to write and sometimes even debug.

 

So even if you are a clutzy programmer like myself those tendencies can also be very beneficial in a way as they can force you to learn to adapt and find ways to do things that make you more efficient as a programmer.