How does a programmer think?

Posted by Gordon Potter on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Gordon Potter
Published on 2009-08-04T09:36:45Z Indexed on 2011/02/09 7:25 UTC
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logic

This may be a hopelessly vague question. But I am interested to hear whatever logical thought processes people go through when learning a new concept or trying to get their brain around code they might not have ever seen before.

Basically, what general steps does one take to to break down problems and what does it take to "get it"? If you were to diagram a flowchart of how your mental process works when you look at code or try to solve a problem what might it look like?

What common references, tips, and mental assumptions do you find useful in problem solving?

How is this different between different domains? For example in what ways is a web programmer's thought process similar or different from a traditional desktop app developer's process?

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