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Ask HN: How much of your thought process while coding is verbal?

by thewarrior on 4/22/24, 5:24 PM with 4 comments

Inspired by the “programming is thinking” post. How does your thought process look like ? Is it verbal or intuitive ?

  • by JohnFen on 4/22/24, 9:59 PM

    It depends. If I'm "in the zone", there's nothing verbal about it. I stop seeing the screen or feeling the keyboard and the code just flows forth. I do have a mental imagery in the form of geometric shapes, but that's about it.

    If I'm not "in the zone", then I verbalize a lot either with my actual voice or in my head, stating out loud what the immediate problem I'm solving is and walking through the steps I'm taking.

  • by cc101 on 4/22/24, 7:44 PM

    It's maybe 10% strictly verbal, and that only when I'm having trouble. More significantly, I make very heavy use of fully formed multi-word camel case variable names. It's much like speaking out loud. It is hugely useful, and the compiler doesn't care.

  • by interbased on 4/22/24, 10:34 PM

    I’d say it’s about 50/50. It’s verbal when considering what to name variables, styling the code, and ensuring I didn’t make any mistakes. When considering the flow of the code, and what pieces to put where, it’s more intuitive.

  • by dave4420 on 4/22/24, 5:54 PM

    A little bit verbal, a little bit intuitive, but mostly visual (both equations and diagrams).