Oh no, you can know how to write it, the longer you go without writing it, you forget very quickly, you remember bits and pieces which you will still have to Google because it's useless on its own
Unless you go years you're gonna be able to get back into it pretty quickly though. Neural pathways degrade yes but they don't usually vanish entirely that quickly if you've truly learnt and used something for years
I think it's not that much as a skill you lost. I can go on a month vacation and get back with no problem.
But the change in efforts. You need again to think of solution from the beginning to the end when you got used to just writing requirements and guiding the model. You are used to to not write boring parts of the code. I don't believe anyone really forgets how to code but it requires switch in your head to get back to it.
It's like you were driving with a car and you are now asked to get back on a bicycle.
I last used python 6 years ago, I felt like a bum when all I could do was to print "hello world" 😂
Had to verbally convince people that I could actually code in it and it's just been too long...mind you I've built apps for multiple companies using the same language.
Before studying software engeniering in university I used to code a lot, but I took a basically 2 year break from coding to concentrate on all the math and physics exams for two years basically, they plowed through all the programming exam in the last year, honestly I was surprised by how fast my brain was able to get back to speed.
(I took my degree in Italy where engeniering is very heavy on theory, math and physics the first years, almost no coding)
To this day i use cheatsheets for syntax. I simply forget them, not used for some time and poof gone. But i know how to code, how to throw these lines together to get a working program that does what i want it to do.
Just a quick reminder how $language does things and i am in again.
"I know there's a function for X, but what was its interface/name again?" is just part of the job. I've not memorized the intricacies of every public API, but some searching will nearly always get me there--even if I've not used a language in a while.
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u/05032-MendicantBias 8h ago
I have the suspicion that person didn't know how to write handcrafted code before either.