As the title suggests, for the past year I have been trying to learn how to script and I do know how to script a few different things for functionality but, I feel like I’ve forgotten how to do some of it so… Am I just doing everything wrong?
For me, I don’t just want to learn how to script, I want to be able to do it effectively. At first, I was learning how to script through youtube videos and then I transitioned to the developer hub but now, I just don’t really know. Should I be able to understand and remember everything or just learned or is it okay to go back and relearn some of the stuff I have forgotten?
You can’t script, if you don’t understand how everything works. Start from basics, try to understand them as much as you can, explore a lot. After that continue your journey.
You start from the basics, you make a lot of messy code, and then you get better at it, write more efficient code and it helps if you’re mathematically inclined or good at figuring how things work- because scripting is just that, figuring how stuff would work and then implementing it.
Speaking as someone who has managed multiple levels of devs at Amazon, I wouldn’t be too concerned about memorization. As you gain experience over time, and you use common APIs or techniques more frequently, those will come easily to you. You will be more familiar with patterns and practices than anything - you will understand good software architectures the more you are exposed to them.
Referring to the API guide or using Intellisense is not a big deal because there are so many different APIs, events, properties, etc. it’s not possible to memorize them all. Believe me, I know senior devs with 10 years commercial experience still look up API docs for stuff. Not stuff they use all the time, but still a lot of stuff.
You dont need to be too concerned about memorization, you will get better while making games.
I couldn’t memorize everything I learned until I started making a game, so I only started improving my skills after making a game (while learning) and that way I could actually memorize and learn at the same time much much better.
I recommend making a game while you’re learning(try think by yourself when scripting, if you cant really remember or u dont know how to script something, u can check some youtube videos or the roblox documentation).
Many professional scripters I know myself do forget a lot about the functionality of certain things, they often check the dev forum, don’t worry about memorizing things it’s not needed and it’s really annoying for those people that don’t enjoy memorizing.
Even the doctors in real life do forget about certain things and often check internet for information, even before when internet didn’t exist they consulted books
The only important thing about learning to script is how it works, nothing more nothing less, if you do understand each thing then all good, you can forget about certain function, you know what it does and you want to use it! Searching the name for it it’s not that hard, we all can forget.
I see many people struggle with this problem, where they are stuck within the tutorial purgatory. Usually, happens from the lack of practice or relying on too many external resources. You should try to create small original projects without relying too much on tutorials and relying only on Roblox’s API documentation whenever you’re stuck in order to strengthen your foundation of programming.
Many youtube tutorial on Roblox scripting only exposes people to the Roblox’s API. These are great if you’re an experienced programmer who just want to have a crash-course understanding of lua and the Roblox’s API. It’s bad for new beginners who doesn’t have an understanding what datatypes, conditional, loops or tables even are.
You shouldn’t be memorizing blocks of code but rather have an understanding how to find things through Roblox’s API reference manual.
Whenever if you’re trying to program a complexity system your first step shouldn’t be coding. You should brainstorm through paper and pencil; draw out your system to visualize it. The longer you spend brainstorming your system, the quicker it is for you to translate that into code since you have all your thoughts organized.
Programming is about breaking down a complex system into smaller pieces and work your way up to your goal. At the end of the day, programming is just a tool to give instructions to the computer. It’s like explaining how to do something to a baby.
I recommend that before you do things more effectively, get all the basics down for scripting, even if it takes more work than a more effective way, and slowly build up how effective you can put something. All programmers that I have known will every once in a while go back and look/ relearn things that they may not have retained fully.
Thanks for the replies, everyone! So far, I’ve realized that I’ve been thinking of it all wrong, I was just thinking about what the script does and not why it does it. Either way, thanks for your words of wisdom
