All right guys. 1
It's Angela from The App Brewery again. 2
So at this stage I'm presuming that you've probably at some point in your life done a tutorial or a 3
lesson somewhere else out there on the Internet and inevitably at some point you'll probably get stuck 4
on a problem. 5
Now I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can make the course such that you get stuck less often, 6
but with programming it’s almost a core part of the learning process that you do get stuck and you get 7
yourself unstuck. 8
So I tend to find that when I get stuck on something I try to see it as a challenge because usually 9
when I solve it and when I figure it out there is a huge sense of satisfaction and there's usually some 10
associated growth. 11
Now having taught over 100,000 students online and offline I've seen people struggle in lots of different 12
ways, 13
and I just wanted to summarize the steps that you can go through when you get stuck on any sort of programming 14
problem and the framework that you can use to get yourself unstuck in the quickest way possible. 15
Now the first step is to evaluate what is the expectation versus what is the reality. 16
What did you expect your code to do or what did you expect to happen and what actually happened. 17
So every time you run your code, 18
think to yourself what do I expect to happen and then see what really happened and try to figure out 19
what is causing the difference. 20
Now while you're writing code it's inevitable that you will end up creating errors. And this can happen 21
when you've made a mistake or spelled something wrong or even when you're just trying to install a piece 22
of software. And those errors are usually accompanied by bits of text or the error message. And you can 23
see this in your browser or in your code editor. 24
And most of the time it might seem like these error messages are written by aliens because they don't 25
seem to make any sense. 26
But you can quite easily figure out the human meaning in English for it by just putting it into Google 27
and you'll usually get lots of different answers as to what the cause might be and how you can fix the 28
problem. 29
And one of the web sites, if you don't already know about it, it's going to shortly become your very best 30
friend, and that is stackoverflow.com. 31
So I recommend searching for any errors that you come across into Google and then heading towards the 32
Stack Overflow web sites that come up as a result. 33
And this is exactly what real life developers do every single day. 34
And in fact I've worked in teams where we will all just go to the pub and have a drink and end the day 35
if Stack Overflow is no longer working. 36
So it's all a part of the developer workflow. 37
Now if that still doesn't help, or you’re confused by the results that you're getting back, then it's a good 38
idea to re-watch some of the video up to the point when the code started breaking or it started doing 39
something unexpected, because in the videos there are always step by step instructions and it's really 40
important that you check to make sure that you haven't made a typo here or there or you haven't capitalized 41
something that shouldn't be capitalized and just re-watch the video right before when your code broke 42
in order to try and figure out what might have gone wrong. 43
Now the next step is you can check your code against my code. At the end of every tutorial module, 44
there is a completed project that you can download, and you can scroll through the completed code, compare 45
it to your own, and see if there were any typos, any errors, any mistakes, and if it helps you can even 46
copy and paste sections from the completed code into your own module just to see if that line or that 47
paragraph helped to fix the issue. 48
And if that still doesn't solve it then the next step is head towards the Q & A. 49
So, underneath every lesson there is a Q & A Section, and it's a good idea to check in the lesson when 50
your app has broken to see whether if anybody else had similar issues to you. And, if you can't find anybody 51
with the same issues, then ask in the Q & A, but make sure that you ask your question in the lesson 52
where you're having the issue. That way it makes it much easier for other students to be able to learn 53
from your mistakes and also for me to be able to quickly identify what the problem might be. 54
And if you have a question about anything in the tutorial it's a good idea just to include the timestamp 55
at which it occurs in the video so I can quickly watch it and figure out what you're referring to so 56
that I can better answer your questions. 57
Now, when you are asking questions in the Q & A, the way to get the most helpful responses and solutions 58
is by following a four step approach. 59
So firstly, tell us, so myself and other students, 60
what did you expect to happen, then 61
what actually happened, and then include a screenshot of all of your code that corresponds to this situation, 62
and then include a screenshot of the debug console that includes any errors, 63
if there were any errors or if your app has crashed. 64
Now, to take a screenshot of part of the screen in Windows, all you have to do is hold down the Windows 65
key, Shift and S, and then you'll get these little crosshairs show up and you'll be able to take a section 66
of your screen as a screenshot, and, once you let go of the mouse, it will save this to your clipboard ready 67
to be pasted into Paint or any other application. 68
If that doesn't work for you be sure to just Google how to take a screenshot of part of the screen and 69
you'll see lots of videos that can help you with this as well. 70
If you're using a Mac computer, on the other hand, this shortcut is going to save you a lot of time, and it 71
might be worth noting this down in your notebook. When you use Command, Shift and 4, you get this little 72
crosshair that shows up and you can start clicking and dragging the area that you want to take a screenshot 73
with and it will save it automatically to your desktop, which then you can upload into the Q & A area 74
for the lecture. 75
So that's just a brief step by step process on what to do and how to get help when you get stuck and 76
it's important to remember that everybody gets stuck sometimes. 77
I've spent days trying to find a bug in my code and it turns out to be just a comma that was misplaced 78
or a semicolon that was accidentally deleted, and one of the greatest joys, for me anyways, is figuring 79
out these problems and fixing them. So don't worry if you do get stuck. Everybody will try to help you. 80
And just remember that getting stuck and solving it is all a part of the learning journey.