So I’m not a beginner. Tutorials are good for starting out. And what I keep hearing from every programming advice is to just read the docs and not do tutorials? Tutorials don’t show how they solved the problem. They just show you the plan. So why not go to the docs and try to solve the problem? How did tutorial creators learn before tutorials? They read the manual and docs. Tutorials don’t cover everything of the API. Docs do. My learning plan is that I try to figure everything by reading the docs and if I can’t solve the problem watch a tutorial. Is this right? Is this how every unity programmer programs?
Umm… I would guess the answer is “nope” but it is hard to tell what you are asking. Whether to read docs and/or to follow tutorials?
Is someone forcing you to choose between methodologies?
That’s what I am asking. Read docs or keep on watching tutorials?
Is “both” on the menu? How did you learn all the non-Unity things you know? It is the same process.
Ok dude then why do some people on Reddit say “tutorials are only for starting out. Keep practicing and do solid hours of mistakes”?
“Ok dude” is not really effective here, maybe on Reddit. Why do some people on Reddit say “anything”… best is to ask those people don’t you think?
Do what you think works for yourself, is that reasonable? You asked if this is how every unity programmer programs which can only be answered “no”. Why do you seem annoyed?
Once you’re in the intermediary stage you really need to be able to set your own goals and work towards solving your own problems, learning what you need as you go, and asking for help where needed (this is where Copilot and similar can be useful).
Basically you need to learn by doing. That will include learning from your mistakes.
Though several decades old the fundamentals haven’t changed. I’ll quote from the introduction from my book on application development
“There is a big difference between computer programming and computer application development.”
There is a big difference between computer programming and computer application development. Programming consists primarily of controlling the computer through computer language constructs. Programming is the process of combining algorithms and data structures to perform a given task. This relationship is, in fact, the title of a classic book by Niklaus Wirth, Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, (Prentice-Hall, 1976).
As a result of college courses or through diligent self study you can eventually learn what a variable is, how to write a FOR…NEXT loop, and when to use stacks, queues and linked lists. After some practice in either BASIC, Pascal, C, dBASE, FoxPro or Clipper, Ada, Lisp, Forth, or any of a dozen other computer languages, you will have harnessed the fundamentals and can honestly claim that you program in that language.
However, designing—and more importantly, completing—sophisticated applications involves additional skills that are almost never taught in school. Some programmers discover the secrets of developing computer applications over time, but developing applications remains for many an elusive challenge, a contest, or even a battle between the programmer and the language, with the computer in the role of referee.
Application development is computer programming—and then some. This point helps explain why I’m asked the following question more often than any other: “Where do I begin?”
(I’ll skip the remainder of the book… for now)
It’s as if everyone must have an opinion on Reddit.
Just make a fun project and don’t listen to anyone not offering help or criticisms on how you want to do it. Learning is watching or reading stuff, practice is doing something over and over again, they both work!