Just got done with episode 20, brothers and sisters, and man I'm exhausted. I think about three hours were dedicated to that topic, and I had to do tons of pausing, unpausing, reading diffs, and stepping through the code on my own. Guess this is what separates an Eta Mu Eta from a mere pledge. I was really happy when Casey said nothing as difficult would come up for a while.
:side:<-<
Anyway, I think it would be nice if the episode guide mentioned that the audio sync episodes represent an early difficulty spike for the viewer. I think knowing that will help a lot of people power through them.
As for discussion, I'm wondering if anyone who is further ahead than me in HMH can offer:
- Some tips for watching HMH
- "Big picture" knowledge/wisdom
- Things that would have been nice to know when you started
:side:<-<
Anyway, I think it would be nice if the episode guide mentioned that the audio sync episodes represent an early difficulty spike for the viewer. I think knowing that will help a lot of people power through them.
As for discussion, I'm wondering if anyone who is further ahead than me in HMH can offer:
- Some tips for watching HMH
- "Big picture" knowledge/wisdom
- Things that would have been nice to know when you started
I'm on episode 40something, I can suggest you to download the episodes with youtube-dl(there's a pinned topic in the forum) and use something like mediaplayer classic with some custom shortcut keys so you can navigate the lessons more easily, I find this really useful, youtube it's not fast enought for that, I can say that the audio part is the only thing I really didn't understood but since it's a pretty self contained part, I was not worried too much... anyway I suggest you to follow some khan academy math if you feel a bit uncomfortable with some topics, like I did (see dimensional analysis) you can find nice lessons that really can help programming.
I'm now trying to write myself some code just using msdn, I think you should do that too, this is the best way to really verify and consolidate the stuff you are Learning. You should also modify it and experiment.
The Windows api is a bit boring but you need to be confortable in there too... It's awesome how Casey show you how much of that you can modify and let you peak a bit of what's the logic behind some old syntax and why them are there...
I wish I started to code by myself early, so I recommend you to start now...
You can use the graph in the code guide as a bit of help while using msdn
cheers
I'm now trying to write myself some code just using msdn, I think you should do that too, this is the best way to really verify and consolidate the stuff you are Learning. You should also modify it and experiment.
The Windows api is a bit boring but you need to be confortable in there too... It's awesome how Casey show you how much of that you can modify and let you peak a bit of what's the logic behind some old syntax and why them are there...
I wish I started to code by myself early, so I recommend you to start now...
You can use the graph in the code guide as a bit of help while using msdn
cheers
Edited by rizoma
on
When I first started following the series, I would review the diffs for a particular day before watching the episode. I tend to do the opposite nowadays (mostly because it's faster), but I still enjoy reading the code first from time-to-time and trying to make sense of what Casey may have been thinking or what his motivations were before watching him explain it in an episode. So if you've never tried that, give it a go once in a while to mix things up.
But if I had to give one tip to anyone following the series closely it would be this: Don't be afraid to edit the code and make it your own (figuratively speaking). Casey's code is quite amenable to change, so if you don't like the way he implements something do it differently. Do it your way and see how it works. In fact, I would say that trying to find an alternate way to do something that doesn't make sense is probably the best way to get a better understanding of Casey's code, however contradictory that may seem--even if the alternative isn't very good. I know I've been having a lot of fun doing this myself and it's been a pretty awesome learning experience.
But if I had to give one tip to anyone following the series closely it would be this: Don't be afraid to edit the code and make it your own (figuratively speaking). Casey's code is quite amenable to change, so if you don't like the way he implements something do it differently. Do it your way and see how it works. In fact, I would say that trying to find an alternate way to do something that doesn't make sense is probably the best way to get a better understanding of Casey's code, however contradictory that may seem--even if the alternative isn't very good. I know I've been having a lot of fun doing this myself and it's been a pretty awesome learning experience.
I would agree that trying different things is a very good idea. I try to show the raw process of coding on stream, but I only make certain mistakes and show certain mistakes. There are lots of mistakes I don't make any more, or ideas I don't explore for some reason or another, but those may be important mistakes for you to make or important ideas for you to explore for some reason.
Almost everything we do on Handmade Hero could be done a wide variety of ways and still be very good. We don't have time to try them all, obviously, but if you have time to do so on your own, you will certainly learn much more than if you just stuck to the ways we do it on the stream.
- Casey
Almost everything we do on Handmade Hero could be done a wide variety of ways and still be very good. We don't have time to try them all, obviously, but if you have time to do so on your own, you will certainly learn much more than if you just stuck to the ways we do it on the stream.
- Casey