Learning and explaining code
 

How many people here actually have trouble explaining code? I am asking this because I have a hard time on here contributing because I cannot really explain coding. I have a lot of trouble doing it actually but if I have the work in front of me and doing it myself.

When a buddy of mine tried to teach me I did not understand any of it so after about a week he got mad at me and said he did not want to deal with it anymore. I already had the site up and what I did was go one step at a time. I would change something and then would go to the site and see what had happened. That is how I taught myself and that is what I still do when I code. This is why is so hard for me to contribute on here. I would like to hear some others stories.

Lately I've had a hard time explaining code that I have not written personally.

I have so many preconceptions about how code should be written and when I come across something that is subpar, sloppy or poorly implemented, not commented, not organized, etc, I have a really hard time.

However there is code like Mootools and Wordpress. I can explain huge chunks of those things by simply looking at the names of functions/methods and arguments/parameters. Those things are coded consistently and have a particular style so reading and explaining is much easier.

Not usually with my code, I make sure that i don't need to explain it 8-)
I do however have trouble explaining my ideas at times, it all makes sense in my head but when i try to explain them, it all comes out 'wrong road round'.

Yeah that happens to me a lot as well. I could not sit and tell you about how to write a MYSQL query it is easier for me to show you or just do it for you:)

You should look into some open source programs. If you set your mind that your gonna develop a patch then you have to understand their code. Then you'll have knowledge of explaining your own code but also the code of another programmer.