How do you approach a project?

[ElectricNoodle]

How do you program???

Do you think of an idea or concept, then jump straight in and see if you can get it working?
Or do you like to maybe plan out the flow of the program/game before you start with the actual code?
Or another way??

I always find myself especially when making games, getting carried away and jumping straight into the code to get a working prototype!! Then my code seems to get messier from there So more recently I've started making simple flow charts, with the flow of how I want my programs to go... then its easy to see what functions to create and where to use them I used it in my programming classes last year, but then until I started writing more complex programs and games, didn't really see the benefit!!!

Anyone else got any tips or ideas to share with anyone, wanting to program most efficiently??

[Kulverstukas]

I like to plan out a basic idea and jump in to make it. When I have a basic working thing, I wrap it around with exception handling, conditions, error checking etc... And from there see what I could do more to shape the project into a more usable product

[Zesh]

I like to plan out a basic idea and jump in to make it. When I have a basic working thing, I wrap it around with exception handling, conditions, error checking etc... And from there see what I could do more to shape the project into a more usable product

This. Open up notepad write out a basic idea and then just jump into it

[Huntondoom]

I just see something I want to make that makes stuff easier, organised in a different way, or help me with certain tasks, so I wont have to do it manually

[FuyuKitsune]

Depends how large the project is and how much I know about the topic. If it's something small I go straight to it. If it's large or I don't know about the topic I'll lurk and Google for days before constructing a plan.

[xzid]

Small, just write it and tamper with it till it works.

If big, build main code w/blank functions with comments to remind me what they do.. Then write functions later, or while I'm thinking about how to build main code. ex:

Code: [Select]

// readit: returns contents of file(arg1)
readit(arg1) { }

/*
variable mybuffer = readit("file.txt");
*/

// this would be how I deal with file before readit() is written
variable mybuffer = "
This is my file
foo doo bar
";

// do whatever to mybuffer

Especially work on the program specific functions, like if I'm working on a website file scanner/bruteforcer.. Get the HTTP/loop code done first, reading the wordlist can wait.

Of course, isn't realistic example or a real language. And the webforcer example would actually fall under small/simple code, but you get the point.