Spraul, V. Anton Think Like a Programmer

Do you struggle to write programs, even
though you think you understand program-
ming languages? Are you able to read through
a chapter in a programming book, nodding
your head the whole way, but unable to apply what
you’ve read to your own programs? Are you able to
comprehend a program example you’ve read online, even to the point where
you could explain to someone else what each line of the code is doing,
yet you feel your brain seize up when faced with a programming task and a
blank screen in your text editor?
You’re not alone. I have taught programming for over 15 years, and most
of my students would have fit this description at some point in their instruc-
tion. We will call the missing skill problem solving, the ability to take a given
problem description and write an original program to solve it. Not all pro-
gramming requires extensive problem solving. If you’re just making minor
modifications to an existing program, debugging, or adding testing code, the
xiv Introduction
programming may be so mechanical in nature that your creativity is never
tested. But all programs require problem solving at some point, and all good
programmers can solve problems.
Problem solving is hard. It’s true that a few people make it look easy—
the “naturals,” the programming world’s equivalent of a gifted athlete, like
Michael Jordan. For these select few, high-level ideas are effortlessly translated
into source code. To make a Java metaphor, it’s as if their brains execute Java
natively, while the rest of us have to run a virtual machine, interpreting as we go.