When you program, you are doing one thing, well maybe two things:
- You are trying to get the computer/device to perform a certain task.
Ok, I lied - one thing. What does it mean that I want the computer to do a certain task? It means it is a logical problem.
I'm going to create a program to show me a random word from a text file, I need to figure out a lot of things. Kind of a bad example for robotics, but it is something simple you can hopefully read easily. Anywho, these are the questions I would be asking myself if I were to do this:
- What language am I going to use?
- Am I going to need this later?
- How will this text file be organized with words? (i.e. - how will I fill this text file with words)
- Will I be running this from a textual prompt or using some sort of graphical interface?
- Do I need to get input from the user?
- What functions do I need to use to extract a word from this text file? (i.e. - how will I read this file)
- How do I get a random number to pick a random word using the function from the question above?
The list could go on, and it probably will. Simply, the ultimate question is How? - not "What is the answer to life the universe and everything?" as some authors would like us to think (although it is useful for some situations). Pretty much it all comes down to - "How the heck am I going to do this?" It's a good question.
Do I have a answer? No. Why? There is about a billion different ways to do it. But let's say I don't know anything about how I'm going to approach this desired program. I only know the questions above, nothing else, no idea how I'm going to accomplish and answer those problem. How do I solve it? Research. Programmers are kind of nice sometimes and release information on how to do things - a API (Application Programming Interface). Pretty much this is a Hitchhikers Guide to x Language. Without going into too much detail, most of the time (don't quote me on that) the API will explain in English (it may not be plain English) what a class, function, program, whatever does and what it needs to work.
Just for a example, take a look at the Java API here. If you are looking at LabVIEW or some other language, Google works well and so does the LabVIEW's help menu.
Pretty much, when learning a new language or looking up something new, Google your problem (ex: "reading a file in Java") and see what results come up. Yeah, several tutorials may come up, which may show you some unheard of functions. Google those. Google everything.
Programming is a non-stop learning experience. Using the API as a reference is fantastic and you may find you learned a few things while you are at it.
-Tanner