A Beginner's Doubt

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 2:53 AM, Joshua Landau
<joshua.landau.ws at gmail.com> wrote:
> Now, as I'm probably the most new programmer here I'll point out that
> I don't agree with Chris when he says that:
>
>> One way or
>> another, you will probably spend the next week writing code you throw
>> away; if you try to tackle the primary project immediately, you'll
>> have to rewrite parts of it as you learn. It's easier to throw away a
>> toy "Hello world" program than hunks of what you thought would be your
>> final code.
>
> As a new programmer, you will throw away code whether or not you
> practice beforehand. Beware of that. If anything, it's the best thing
> you can do*.

Yes, you will throw code away; but you'll throw away less of your
finished product if you write code that isn't destined to be part of
your finished product. But you're absolutely right; code should never
be treated like children, to be preserved at all costs. It's okay to
change your mind and scrap something.

ChrisA