general programming

how do you know everything about programming? I tried to make a simple game in html5 but I can not unlike unity. A good programmer should know everything. Do you know everything?

 

A good programmer doesn't know every single thing, a good programmer learns to know what to look for when it comes time to look for it.

I mean the more you can remember, the better - obviously. But nobody remembers every single thing, this is why we have documentation and places to research - such as using google to find an answer. Who knows you might be trying to seek an answer to something that's never been done before, and when cases like that happen, it mainly comes down to brainstorming and figuring it out.

 

Good programmers knows that they know nothing (alright, that's an slight exaggeration). The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know.

However, a programmer has an ability to find the information they need online, in documentation, etc. The ability is acquired through practice.

 

So does that mean nobody knows everything? When I see some tutorials I wonder how they know certain things. Will they also be documented?

 

The best programmers simply know what keywords to google.

 

@Bolt Exactly, none of us know every single thing, in due time you'll realize programming despite how broad it can be, can generally be quite simple to look what you need to look for.

This comes with experience and time, it won't happen over night, in a week or even in a year, but in time you will be proficient in looking for the things you need to look for, as @LaneFox said - need to know what Keywords to google for, in due time you'll come to the terms of what things are called, so when it comes time to use something you forgot how to use, you can just simply google the things you believe will solve your problems.

 

Yes.

 

I thought that coming at some point you knew a bit of everything (at least in the field of video games) but at a time of time, some algorithms I had worked (including the realization of procedural labyrinths) I forgot them and I had to deal with them and so I deprimevo. Thank you

 

I believe that being a good programmer has less to do with accumulating knowledge about particular facts (or being good at Googling them) than understanding the principles.

Having a good vocabulary certainly helps if you aim to be good at making a speech or writing a novel, for example, but it's far from being a sufficient condition for that goal. And the same can be said of having a good grasp at grammar, which is equivalent for a programmer to know the syntax of a language.

To become a good programmer, it is not sufficient to memorize large number of API functions or search them over the internet, just as you don't call a person to be good at making a speech simply because he or she knows a lot of words or very good at searching a dictionary.

Rather, you need to know how to structure your narrative, and how to keep audiences interested by using examples or analogies effectively, for example. These are things that we usually call a strategy, approach, method, or principle and you can find the same things in learning how to be a good programmer.

Technically speaking, it is not sufficient for you to know all the syntax or memorize a lot of APIs to be proficient in programming. But you'll need to know the paradigm of the language, and to be familiar with the common approaches that can be used to solve problems, which are often called as design patterns or algorithms.

 

They are all great answers above I think.

As far as your attempt to make a game in HTML5 directly and not being able to and yet can in Unity... well I'd say that is simply because Unity shields you from many concerns and a deeper understanding of the fundamentals.

I think many people could make a game in Unity and Gamemaker Studio but would not even know where to begin if doing it in straight html5 or c++ and opengl, etc.

Once you know the fundamentals... and this is something a person does master through experience.... you can then apply those to any language/api/game engine. You won't necessarily be taking advantage of any given game engine's strengths but you can move from one to another able to complete games reasonably easy.

The workflows/processes change but you still know exactly what you need to do and conceptually how to do it so it becomes a simple matter of figuring out how each thing is done in the new engine.

 

It is more important to know what you don't know, and how to look it up when needed, than to try to know everything.

One thing you can be sure of in life is anyone who claims to know everything about really any topic, doesn't actually know much at all.