Hello, World!

by Robert Oct 06, 2019 developer-journey

It's traditional to write a "hello world" when you first get something working. Reading the Wikipedia history section about this common trope has the tradition dating back to at least 1972. That's 47 years of programmers using this small phrase to declare their mastery of the machine they have in front of them.

Since I was around middle school age, that's always been my goal, to master the machine in front of me. I wanted to understand it and command it to do what I wanted. After all, that's what computers are good at, right? The earliest thing I can remember programming was the graphing calculator that my mom and I went out to buy for school. I was starting to take math classes where having one was useful, but my first real use of it to was practice programming.

I wish I could remember the model or still had the calculator. I gave it to my younger sister when I got a newer one toward the end of high school. But I belive it was very similar at least to the Casio CFX9850-GB PLUS. When everyone else was getting the TI-83 series, I bought this one from Casio. Why? Because it had color! I believe it was around the same price or maybe even a bit cheaper, but I can remember seeing it in the store and thinking it was better because it had a graphical menu and a color screen.

So, we bought it and brought it home. I can remember being excited to try programming it. The manual had a complete list of all of the basic-like functions that you could use and some examples, I believe. The first thing I can recall that I made was a game where you had to move a 'U' left and right on the bottom of the screen as if it were a bucket and catch a '*' that was falling from the top of the screen randomly. There was a score counter that kept track of how successful you were. It was an incredibly easy game to play and not really that fun, but I was so proud of it.

I wasn't around when everyone else was doing these sorts of things with their Commodores, Amigas, or Apple IIs, but I've always found that era to be magical. Ever since my first steps in the world of computers, programming, and software I've been hooked. I went to college and studied computer science and I've had been fortunate enough to work in software for the last 4.5 years and get paid for it!

I've been interested in giving a shot at writing a blog for a while but I never had a clear idea on what it would be like or what I would say. Over the past few years at work, I've participated as a speaker in our weekly tech talks many times. I've found that by preparing and sharing the knowlege or insights that I've gained, I come to understand it even better. And I love giving everyone the tools or techniques that I've learned to help make their lives easier and more productive. That's what I want this blog to be. I am the kind of person who does all sorts of development activities and other computer related hobbies in my free time. I would like to document those and share the things that I've learned in the hopes that they will inspire someone else to be great in what they do.

Hello, world! I'm glad to meet others on the same journey that I've enjoyed for the past 20 years.

-Robert