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O.T.A

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Effective Tips for Sharing Programming Knowledge with Others

One of my friends/colleagues in my Intro to Cs class was trying to find out a way to convert the normal Unicode U+1F600 into pythons Unicode \u1F600. They had all of this code, like 20 different if, else, elif statements and so many variables and all these different types of constraints ( If you reading this, sorry? Please don't come for me lol :/ ).

There is only one way of converting those values and putting them into Unicode, and that is through the chr(input_code_here,input_base_here) element. If you're interested in a more in-depth blog on all of this, Unicode, Binary, Hexadecimal, and other number bases, tell me in the comments.

Anyways, I then tried to figure out the solution, looked online and got the general idea and code, explained it through comments then sent it to them.

But here's the thing, the person still didn't understand it, and that's because I didn't go and show them and give them the solution. And that's the first tip.

1. Physically help the person

Yeah I know, some of us are introverts and rather be alone in a dungeon 200ft underground miles away from human connection. That might be on the more extreme side. But really if we stop and show and explain how we got that solution and the mind process we did to get to that point, it is extremely helpful for that person to get a better understanding of it.

For example, one of your friends has been stuck on a math problem, doing everything to figure it out. They then ask you, and you find the answer and give it to them with no explanation. Know they have the answer but no idea of how it got there and how to show all the steps. Only providing the answer without explaining and physically helping will never be the best way to learn from their mistakes.

2. Using Visuals

Using Visuals is probably the best way of getting hard-to-grasp concepts into your brain.

Why Python" Infographic

vs

reading this

clearly one is easier to understand and quickly get info from.

3. Working in Groups

In general, this is the best way to get ideas flowing and get multiple heads banging to get to the root of errors and argue and complement ways of how to get that problem fixed. Almost like a software engineering team where you all have different ways of doing things but need to come out with one idea saved and one idea to use.

In all, Working in groups, Visualizing, and In-person explanations are key to helping someone else understand harder-to-grasp things or things they get wrong multiple times


If you liked this blog you might like my other blog on Intro to Computers and Data Science, where I go into depth on what the class is and the main concepts I learned, you can find it by clicking here

If you liked this give it a reaction, so I can know if you want more like this blog

Thanks!

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