I have been scripting on Roblox for some time now, but the problem is that I am terrible at retaining information despite practice. Can anyone share some tips on how I can not forget how to program if I stopped for a week or two because I am busy?
You’re really asking a question that is impossible to answer, as every single person on this forum has a different method (no matter how slightly) in which they acquire, and remember, how to program in Lua with Roblox’s API. For some, it may be flashcards to remember concepts, for others, it may be a translation from another programming language. For me personally, as Lua was the first programming language I self-taught myself around the time I was in the 4th grade, my understanding and memorization of concepts comes from practical use. Whenever I set out to achieve some goal through programming with Lua on Roblox, I consider the opportunities (potentially too much), and dig into why each route has its own pros and cons. Many times I will come across a particular oddity with either Lua or Roblox, and am compelled to investigate further. When doing so, I usually like to create a new empty place, which I save locally on my computer, to set up a situation where I isolate this oddity. This helps me to figure out what exactly is going on and what avenues exist to circumvent it. As far as advice for helping a fellow short -term memory loss victim goes, commenting is key. For example, whenever I write an important function in code, I like to preface it with a multi-line comment describing its applicability, parameters, and return values:
--[[
*Description of the function goes here*
*arg1 - *Describe what arg1 can be*; arg2 - *describe what arg2 can be*; etc.
returns *blah blah* explain what the function returns or exclude if the function doesn't return anything
--]]
function reallyImportantFunc(arg1, arg2)
local ValuableContent = nil --If a variable is particularly significant, add a single line comment to describe it
--The code here should not be what reminds you what is going on
--Single line comments, however, can be useful to dispel any ambiguous, or not obvious code
return ValuableContent
end
Hope this helps.
–East98
PS - There’s no shame in needing to check the Developer Wiki constantly as you program. When I program, I often have upwards of 6 tabs open to different articles from the developer wiki just to remind me how/what every predefined function works and operates.