[Courses] [C Programming] Anyone still here?

[Linda Mayhugh]

> Ask questions. :)

Hello all,

I have a different sort of question, a very basic level one: I've done 
some simple programming in a few languages and it's fun. But I always 
feel like I'm missing some basic level understanding of the process. I was 
a science major, not CS, and so just figured out how to write some Perl, 
etc out of necessity. My question lies in how do you know how to approach 
a problem, how do you know where to start, other than "well see if this 
works, if not then try something else, until something apparently works"? 
That approach strikes me as a great way to write really bad mistakes.

This may not even be the real question that hangs me up, but it's all I 
have figured out how to ask so far. I've read books and asked people 
this before and have never gotten an answer that works (least helpful was 
a former boss who archly told me that CS students consider being taught 
how to program as a insult, beneath their dignity. He thought my questions 
to be evidence of a lack of wits).  

So is there some philosophy to programming, some underpinning that is not 
syntax specific, or is it that my way of thinking isn't the same as the 
originators of programming and I'll just never genuinely understand it? Is 
it one of those things that's either intuitive to you or it isn't?

Thanks,

Linda M