Forem: Programmer Things

My cringe youtube story as a Developer

Programmer Things — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 05:39:18 +0000

What's up awesome developers on the internet!!

It's Monday and just finished my cup of coffee. Ugh, you know-how Mondays are :(

Story Time!!

I remember I started a youtube channel of my own, where I wanted to upload video tutorials obviously programming related. Cause I'm a loser and I don't have any other cool hobbies like playing the guitar or making travel vlogs. I always had a fantasy to create my channel but I'm a very shy and ugly person in front of the camera. So after two years of me hesitating I finally created the channel and started recording tutorials in my native language because if you don't know already I'm from India. So, I thought if I start creating the vids in my native language then it will boost my confidence, and then I can move on to create tutorials in English.

So, I started recording tutorials in Java (because it's a very popular language among Indian College students). So I uploaded 25 tutorials (If you understand Hindi you can watch it here). Not many people watch it, I can understand why though(I hate my voice).

After uploading 25 videos and I was not getting any views which made me feel very less of myself. Cause you know I was working hard. I was recording the audio from my headphones after coming from my Day Job and if the Fan was on then the audio was horrible. So, I have to sit in without the Fan and record the video. And this time of year (i.e, Summer) in India is extremely hot.

On the 12th day, I lost all hope and was frustrated with the number of views. The count was zero and I was not getting any new views even after uploading every day. I was heart-broken and depressed, I remember I was sitting in my balcony with a cigarette in my hand, it was 2 AM. I wanted to record another tutorial but I didn't and went to sleep.

I know most of you are thinking that it's only been 1 week of uploading I should've been more optimistic and I totally agree on that but think about constantly recording and editing tutorials and then uploading them every day creating a habit and still seeing the number zero not even a view.

So I wake up the next day and I played my own video on incognito mode and then switched to youtube and there one view shows up. And I manually did this again and again and some hours later I had 22 views. I was happy that's why I ignored the guilt inside me.

And after some time I was bored with me watching my videos on Incognito mode. And that's where my inside developer took this self-conscious act to another level by automating this guilt trip of mine.

Below is the code I used to automate the process.

The process was automated but after uploading 13 more videos and using this script to satisfy my ego, I finally realized the fake view was not the point why I was doing this. I just stopped uploading videos and now I'm taking some time to think about how to be a better developer and continue creating Videos after some time.

I know it's very shameful and it was very hard for me to share this publicly. But I feel a lot better now after sharing this😃.

Stay Safe, guys. See you next time. Peace☮️.

Writing Hello World in all top 20 programming languages

Programmer Things — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 18:47:06 +0000

Good evening everyone, DISCLAIMER: This can be a very boring post. Anyway, you already clicked on it even after reading the title so it's not on me I guess.

For a little context, It is Saturday and I'm chilling in my bedroom in front of my laptop as usual. From Monday to Friday I just wait for the weekend and then I spend the weekend exactly as I spend my weekdays, sitting in front of the laptop scrolling through twitter or Reddit. So, I saw a tweet, in which a developer wrote about his order of programming language learning (i.e, Going through there stack of programming languages one by one from start to finish).

So, I started remembering my journey of learning to code and how I started with my first programming language, C, 5 years ago. So it was a super random day, I was watching some dog videos on Youtube on my uncle phone and out of nowhere A video popped on "Writing Hello World in C programming language".

And that's my friends was the beginning of this beautiful love story of me writing Hello World in my first programming language to Taking admission in College for my CS major to Learning all kinds of technologies and creating beautiful stuff to Getting an internship at a tech company to working full time as a Software Developer after finishing college.

There is a reason why every tutorial or the first step to learning a new programming language starts with the Hello World program. And that reason is the happiness of running your first program in a programming language that you have no idea about, it gives you motivation and confidence to learn and move forward with the technology.

So this will be fun to write hello world in 20 different programming languages 😍. How many of these languages you've worked on? COMMENT BELOW!

By the way, this list is not mine so please don't give me a hard time in the comment section telling me that HTML is not a programming language(I know!). I'm just doing this for fun :)

1. JavaScript

2. Python

3. HTML

4. C

5. C++

6. TypeScript

7. Rust

8. Scheme

9. Java

10. Kotlin

11. C#

12. Perl

13. PHP

14. Scala

15. Swift

16. R

17. Go

18. Ruby

19. Clojure

20. COBOL

If you are still reading maybe you're asking yourself why would someone in their right mind does this? I don't know man why do I do these stupid things. It took me half an hour just to write the code in 20 different languages :(

Well, the point was to start learning something new, to keep your motivation level high. Comment which language you're going to learn Next from this list. I will start learning Scala from Monday.

That's enough stupidity for one day I guess! Stay safe guys and start learning something new, Peace ☮️.

10 tips from A 10 years experienced Developer

Programmer Things — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 17:59:28 +0000

Whats app everybody!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I was a little too excited, What's up everybody. How's everyone doing? I am fine too. OMG, thanks for asking 💕❤

So, If you clicked on this blog I'm sure you also want to be an awesome developer and improve yourself just like every developer wants to be including me. I know when we start our wanna-be "A Software Developer" journey how hard we try to learn things, create projects, looking for freelance work, and preparing for interviews to get a job as a Developer.

You land a job by putting the hours and hard work. You are extremely happy and proud of yourself for achieving your goal of becoming a Software Developer. But till this time you had only worked from your home sitting in your bedroom not knowing what Pair Programming is, How to rebase your branch, What is a Pull Request, What is Daily Standup, What is Story Grooming, What is a Jira Board, I have to write documentation of code? and Why the hell is everyone writing unit tests for their code etc. OH GOD, I couldn't breathe writing the previous sentence.

So, the gist here is that you became a Software Developer but now you need to improve yourself as a Software Developer. And this starts with finding a mentor, who will guide you on the dark path of becoming a Software Developer with his Torch of experience. But the sad reality is that not every developer finds an experienced mentor at his/her workplace.

But Don't Worry, I saw this tweet thread from Sarah Dayan in which she shares 10 takes from his software development journey after working in the industry for 10 years (Seriously 10 years 🤯, Btw Sarah once again fan of your website). So I liked the thread very much and thought why not create a post sharing those 10 points of her with all the dev community so we can also apply these things into our development journey.

So, Let's jump straight into Sarah 10 points from her 10 years journey in the software industry.

1. Quality of experience

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

1. Years of experience don’t mean anything (without quality of experience) 📈

Doing stuff for a long time doesn’t mean you’re getting better.

Stagnation is real. If you’re not actively trying to improve, time doesn’t make it happen automatically.

16:22 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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2. Feedback and mentoring

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

2. Having coworkers is invaluable 👥

Not matter how much of a lone wolf you think you are, you won’t grow as fast alone as with teammates.

Feedback and mentoring (giving and receiving) are a privilege. Without them, you’re operating at a mere fraction of what you could be.

16:22 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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3. Make educated choices

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

3. Identifying with technical choices brings nothing 🛠

It’s fine to like specific tech and want to be part of a club. But it doesn’t make you better than anyone.

Be careful of the golden hammer bias. You’re a problem solver, not a sandwich board man. Make educated choices.

16:22 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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4. Don't follow the hype

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

4. On many subjects, there are no absolute truths 👁

The Internet is filled with opinions. Look at it as food for thought, not gospel.

Parroting the latest thing you read doesn’t make you smart. Consume content to stay current, but also keep a critical mind.

16:22 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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5. Basics are important

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

5. Nothing is beyond your reach when you master the basics 📚

You can start wherever you want. But if you’re finding yourself struggling a lot, it might be because you lack strong foundations.

New and fancy stuff is based on the basics. Mastering them lets you see the matrix.

16:22 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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6. Burnout is real

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

6. Burnout is real 😓

Coding is mentally demanding. The constant stream of information is overwhelming. The pressure of staying current is heavy. The fear of job security disappearing one day is legitimate.

Depression is as real as COVID-19. It’s okay, and help exists.

16:23 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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7. Communication is key

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

7. Seniority isn’t about being the best coder 👩‍💻

If you think you should be senior because you’re a technical beast, you’re missing the point.

Seniority is about experience, impact, and efficiency. Seniors are usually technicially proficient, but soft skills play a huge role.

16:23 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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8. Diversity is crucial

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

8. Diversity is crucial 👩🏻‍🦱🧕🏽🧔🏿🧑🏼‍🦰

Believing in meritocracy is like saying that kids who are good get presents for Christmas.

Diversifying culture in tech is necessary, and must be an active process.

Start here: dev.to/maxart2501/on-…

16:23 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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9. Quantity is as important as quality

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

9. Quantity is as important as quality 🧮

As cliché as it might sound, you won’t get better by polishing forever. Experience and knowledge mostly come from confronting what you do to the outside world.

The more you experiment, the less intimidating it will feel to ship.

16:23 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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10. Connections and relationships.

Sarah Dayan

@frontstuff_io

10. Who you know is as important as what you know 🗺

There are humans behind computers. It’s not just about hard skills. It’s also about making connections and fostering relationships.

You don’t have to become Twitter famous, but reaching out to people goes a long way.

16:23 PM - 26 Jul 2020

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Well, this was a fun blog. I learned a lot from this thread, and I hope you found this interesting too. Thank you so much, Sarah, for sharing your experience with the community 💕❤.

Well, enough of chatting with you guys, I am going to write unit tests for my even-odd program (Below is the code) ;)

Stay safe guys, Peace ☮️.

Language Review: Python (Episode One)

Programmer Things — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 06:58:12 +0000

Python is an interpreted, high-level programming language. If you clicked on this article most probably you heard of this programming language before. Python is on the top of the list of articles titled "Best Programming Languages To Learn In 2020" and no doubt this language packs a lot of punch with its syntax, features, and wild used in the industry.

Well, now the basics introduction of Python is out of the way. Let's deep dive and do a review of this cold-blooded programming language (Pun intended 😉).

So if you are still reading this article, I'm going to break this review of this Review Series of programming languages into five bullet points. For each bullet point, the programming language can get a minimum score of 1 and a maximum of 5, and the average of all five points score will be the final point for the programming language (Still with me?).

Let's start with the first point without further due cause I'm now starting to even confuse myself with this scoring system ;)

1. Learning Curve

On to the first point learning curve, this is one of the most important points that contribute to the success of a programming language. And no doubt, Python ace on this point because of how simple the syntax is and how closely it relates to the English language. Even the setup and installation is very simple and fast, you just need to install the executable and add it to your path, In Linux systems, it even comes pre-installed which is amazing. You don't need to remember a lot of syntaxes, you can learn lots of topics in less time compared to other languages. According to me, this is the best first programming language for a Newbie.

So for the learning curve, Python deserves a score of 4.

I am not giving it a full 5 marks because once you start learning advanced topics like Class, Lambda, etc It will become difficult to keep up with the syntax when you'll try to understand those topics for the first time.

2. Features & Library

Python is a very powerful scripting and general-purpose language. Python has some very interesting and useful features that are going to be very helpful in your coding journey. One thing that I like so much about it is that it's an interpreted language (i.e, execution of code is done line by line from top to bottom) which makes debugging very easy for me. Python is also a cross-platform language (run similarly on different operating systems) just like Java. It is also open-source. Also, python has tons of libraries for different needs and is very popular among the people who are interested in Machine Learning.

For features & library, Python deserves a score of 3.

The library manager PIP for python still is nowhere near to all mighty NPM which has a crazy amount of libraries for JavaScript and most of the features apart from scripting capability are also present in other languages. I know it sounds that I'm critiquing small points but I have to do it otherwise every language will get a 5 out 5 ratings, and I just to make this series fun with serious information :)

3. Community

Community is a very important factor in our tech industry. It doesn't matter how good your framework or programming language is, or how efficient it is. If a person who is just starting out with the technology, you're offering doesn't have a large community then things get frustrating very quickly and very easily. For example, when I started to learn ruby on rails 5 years back. There was great documentation with a good community of people helping each other but that was not the case for ruby on rails. Without good resources and an active community, I suffered a lot and end up stopped learning Ruby On Rails. That was a bummer cause I liked how things were laid out in it.

Well, that was my grief about my past experiences, let's look at the community of Serpents i.e, Python Developers. I must say Python is the Cristiano Ronaldo Of Programming Languages. It's quite famous and people love to use it in both their work and personal projects. The community is also great for python. It's an open-source product, people work on issues which is a big deal. There are lots of developers helping each other on Stackoverflow, Slack, unofficial forums, official forums, online groups, offline groups, and much more.

For Community, Python deserves a score of 4.

Also, most of the python developers are not very experience cause the language has its charm for the last 4 or 5 years among vast developers. You can read this article here of a survey which was done in 2018 on python developers (You'll be surprised with the numbers). The point is I'm trying to make is that The python community still lacks experienced developers (10+ years). And believe me, having more experienced developers will help you be a better developer.

4. Job Opportunities

I know how pleasing and soulful it is to work on your projects sitting in your bedroom with your warm coffee working late. You'll always see people accusing developers of "Just Doing it for the money." and I can't see why this is a problem if you're doing something that you love and you are earning money, that's the most lasting and peaceful thing anyone can ask for.

On Job Opportunities, Python is a flexible language and the job opportunities are as well. You can work as a developer to build websites, optimize algorithms, write usable and efficient code. Data is key in this era, with the power of Python you can use data to your advantage and land a high paying job as a Data Analyst, Data Journalist, Financial Advisors. There are a lot of awesome jobs for Python developers. Also, Python is one of the top 5 Job skills that and organization looks for.

For Job Opportunities, Python deserves a score of 3.

I don't want to give Python 3 for job opportunities but still, python is behind in the race of job opportunities. Below is the list of jobs that leads the market with most job opportunities. Below is the list of job posting for different languages.

5. Pain points

On to the point that I saved for the last, OH BOY I'M EXCITED!
Before I write anything more stupid let me just take a second to say that Python your Indentation Error is shit and believe me I can't tell you how much I've suffered on important projects and tight deadlines because how frustrating it becomes sometimes due to the indentation. I mean you removed semicolons (WOW), removed braces (MIND BLOWN) but stupid indentation errors (LOL). So without wasting more time lets waste some more time by continuing this article.

Programmer Things

@programmerthing

The biggest reason why Python (@ThePSF) is my side chick and not my girlfriend (i.e @java) is Multithreading.

#100DaysOfCode #CodeNewbie

06:05 AM - 05 Aug 2020

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Apart from multithreading, what the heck is going on with the versions of Python, You released version 3.x after 2.x and community gave a big middle finger to you and you agreed on that. I know features are improving, you guys are fixing issues, but there is a legacy code issue with this two different versions. And if you're a beginner I'm sure you've come across Pythons weird scoping rule. Also, the execution time of pure python code is slower compare to other languages like C and why are we not allowed to write multiple lines code into lambdas. A little point in which Object-oriented programming language, someone passes the first argument of a method present inside of a class as "self" ( I mean seriously how self-ish are you 😉).

For Pain points, Python deserves a score of 2.

I know I'm being a little harsh here, but when we want to create scalable and efficient applications, Execution time and Multithreading are some of the most important things that you need your programming languages to have.

Conclusion

Well, if my math is correct which is correct cause you know I'm a software developer

Python gets a score of 3.2 out of 5

No language is perfect every programming language has its pinpoints. And in my opinion, Python is a great first language to learn.

At last, what I want to say is that I had a lot of fun writing this blog. Always want to start this series but I hesitated every time I started to write. But finally, I've done it. And, if anyone of you is still reading I hope you liked it!

If you want more of this type of blog, Comment below which language I should review next. And if you hated it, my DMs are open on Twitter and Instagram for Hate-speech.

Stay Safe in this Pandemic, Peace ☮️.