Copy paste code: yay or nay

[pale vessel]

@sudden fox

[sudden fox]

alright, programming shortcuts

so you dont think that using shortcuts, to speed up game development is a good practice?

[pale vessel]

i can agree with snippets, as long as you keep m precise and single tasked for a very usual template

i just dont agree with copy pasting code that you think you understand that you didnt already completely write yourself

like for example, if i see anything like an example on google as a solution to a problem, i neer copy paste that. but a character controller that i wrote for another game that can be applied to this game i do copy, cuz i wrote that code myself. though i will still check if i remember every bit of it and if not i might rewrite it anyway as it may have been too long ago

[sudden fox]

then, even if it is a little 'cheaty' doesnt using snippets almsot turn it into a sort of code blocks situation

as long as you understand what the parts do, the machine works the same. whether you forged the cogs by hand or not

[pale vessel]

depends on the snippet

for example, do you use a for loop snippet?

[sudden fox]

yea easily. i use for loop snippets, i use raycast snippets alot too

honestly, my code is a bit sloppy. thats without debate. but as a hobby game dev, especially solo, you gotta cut corners to bring a product

[pale vessel]

thats fair, and i do to so i would be a hippocrit if i was against it, but at some point, you use them so much that if you dont have the snippet anymore, you may need to look up how exactly you need to structure the for loop

[sudden fox]

alot of the times, you make a sorta 'kinda works' and then fix it as problems arrise

and its fair that, you have to decide where you want to sit on a game development team

[pale vessel]

thats called reactive programming, which is fine and also where everyone starts, it does depend though if you been doing this for a long time.

[sudden fox]

you have to get good at one thing, no matter what. whether that be art, sound, level design, or programming

you dont want to use shortcuts for everything, or you never become good at anything

in all honesty, ive been programming for a long time, but my code is pretty dogshit. i think i made it to 5 kyu on codewars?

i dont even know where to start on making better code, that actually does what needs to be done.

because you either google solutions, and then go thru the documentation to figure out what every piece of thier code does

or you jsut reuse your own, and risk learning incorrectly

[pale vessel]

well, thats just experience honestly and im on the same page, but i am now at a point where im starting to understand more patterns and how to code in a more efficient way... but its hard

like for example, just for aesthetics sake.
i started inversing if statements to prevent indentation...

like:

if (x == true) {
  //do stuff
}

to

if (x == false) {
  return
}
// do stuff

this is also for eadability sake, once you get used to that is pretty nice to not have stuff move to the right so much

[sudden fox]

thats tue. what tools do you use? when learning new things?

do you study other peoples codes

[pale vessel]

um, well i usually just pick something to learn, and then try to start a project for it so i can use it directly, and then its just looking at a lot of documentation or even source code

like for example, i learned golang by writing my own programming language transpiler in it which got transpiled in an assembly style language

[sudden fox]

just curious do you do mostly 2d or 3d

[pale vessel]

mostly 3d, but the game jam from yesterday i submited a 2d game as it just made more sense to make it 2D

i usually come up with a game first, then decide based on it if it should be 3d or 2d