i started code school through Tech Talent South last week
im sitting in the seventh day of class and we are writing simple scripts in Java
and i am getting these delicious jolts of delight
you can see it in my goofy smile
this comes both in the rumbling with a problem and when the solution is met
when i get deep into it there is a sense of flow
i really love how my brain thinks about the chaos of raw code
grökking the raw code is enough
then organizing what seems to be broken
discovering the solution
usually a simple bug like a missing character
that stuff is goofy fun
as the title points
this is a return to coding for me not a cold start
below is some of the backstory:
my journey started with the Atari
i could run Pitfall like no other
in fact i held the world record in the game for a 2 week period
i wanted to make games
at the time it was purely for entertainment purposes
my pops worked for IBM
he was a sales exec not a developer
anyway in the Spring of 1983
a little more than a month after my 8th birthday
he brought home one of the first personal computers
the IBM XT
big ass chunky machine with a green monochromatic monitor
it came with a 2400 baud modem card installed on the motherboard and he used it to dial into the office so he could work from home
i used it to explore games and learn how to code in Basic
one of the joys of learning to code is debugging
this is a process of adding lines of code that helps the developers see what the program is actually processing while its going through the commands however it does that
it allows for the developer to see behind the curtain and determine why the code is performing the way it does
its actually the bulk of what i find enjoyable about coding at all
like a gamer
i tend to through a little bit of code
check it
if its working then continue
if not then debug
this iterative process delights me endlessly
feeling more fully equipped to find my team
and return to the world of gaming as an agent of code
its a continuation of a long abandoned adventure
more soon
time to get to class
