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Discussion on: Projects as a new Developer

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mainrs

I still think that it holds true even for your example. My very first larger project was an editor in Java. I’m pretty sure I only created a test area with some basic menus like copy and paste. And it took me weeks. But even if the journey was long, it was the project that made me fully understand some programming concepts.

I’d argue that, even as a beginner, just try it. Take small steps. Look up the documentation of the sdk. Do you need to learn a new language for it? Maybe try and see if an sdk is available for your most familiar programming language. Don’t try to make it work in one step. Maybe try to initialize the sdk. Then try to connect or list your mouse. Then print the value out to the console. The write some kind of watcher that checks the value every x seconds. Then add the conditional for the percentage. Maybe make it configurable using a program argument. And just at the end take a look at how you create a notification in windows.

Even if you only manage to get to the initialization part and barely get that to work. It doesn’t matter. You’d have to go through it at some point. I think such problems are perfect for learning. Because your goal is to have this program. And it’s that what keeps you motivated to power through the difficult parts of it.