in reply to
Never guess at code!
I know what you mean but am not sure it's about pride. Trial
and error, and guessing are key strategies people use to
learn, expand and deploy their language skills. I'm always
learning new things about perl when ignorance and
incomprehensible documentation demand experimentation.
It's also natural for acquired skills to settle into habitual
patterns of unconscious behavior so they can be used
spontaneously without having to think about them.
I agree with your conclusion that this tendency needs to be
overcome when using language to speak with machines. They
demand a much more exact grammer and syntax since the
other constructs we habitually use to convey meaning such
as inflection and body language don't apply (yet).
So I think that saying 'never guess at code' is a little too
strict :-). Instead, guess away and learn new ways to do
things, but always double check your guesses, and question
your own coding habits.
Check out my Perlmonks Related Scripts like framechat,
reputer, and xNN.