En route to coding

The events which persuaded me to code.

Before Coding

I have always been a fond of technology since childhood. I remember during 2007 when my dad had purchased the very first personal computer for our family. I instantly fell in love with it. My interest in computers grew as I began to discover the components that make up a computer.

Three years later in 2010, I was playing a video game in my cousin’s laptop. The game was called “Need For Speed: Most Wanted” (NFS). I asked him if my computer met the requirements to run NFS. His advise was that I should add more RAM(random access memory) to my computer.

A couple days later, he sent me a stick of 2GB(gigabyte) RAM and NFS; I rushed to install them. I noticed that the game did not run as smooth compared to his computer. However, I was just happy to be able to play the game.

Of course at the time, I did not know much about various components that add performance. Later, I found out that components such as, CPU(central processing unit), GPU(graphics processing unit), HDD (hard drive) and motherboard all work together to provide performance.

My career search began

Eventually I dreamed of being in a profession in the field of computer. At the time, I lacked knowledge about the various industries that evolve around computer technology. Therefore, I did not know about my desired occupation.

Around 2012, my focus shifted toward software. I began to want to become a software engineer. Again, I lacked knowledge and later found out that this is not my desired occupation. I found out that my desired occupation is software development.

Coding began

In summer of 2013, another cousin introduced me to coding. I had very little understanding of what coding is. In order to code, it is necessary to learn a programming language. He introduced me to a programming language called Python. Using this language, I can write scripts to automate various tasks (a.k.a. software development). I thought “Wow! this is cool.”

However, I was still entering a new genre of something that I did not fully understand. Even through the confusion, I progressed with coding. It was amazing to be able to create things that I only dreamed of and see them alive on a screen.

My cousin had also introduced me to a small computer called Raspberry Pi. This computer supported Python and can execute Python scripts.

It is a very powerful little computer that excited me. I really wanted to buy one. I begged my dad for days and he finally bought me the device.

I looked up projects in the internet that people have done previously using Raspberry Pi. Among these projects were cloud storage and . I was quick to jump into both, but I never finished any of the two.

Today, I understand coding much more precisely than I did initially. Coding is speaking to a computer. It is much like every other spoken language. They have grammar and sentence structures known as syntax. As long as I understand this concept, I will be able to speak to a computer through coding. This perspective gives me better outlook when tackling new and much more difficult coding problems.

As I mentioned in my first story, the 5-steps also assist tremendously when solving difficult coding problems. Critical planning is always the key to coding any successful project.

My current goal is to become an android application developer which I will write more about in my next story.

I hope that reading this story caused you to become more interested in coding.

Check out these resources:

• You can start your first (or continue your coding) experience here: https://www.codecademy.com
• For visual learners see: https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
• If you are interested in android application development see: https://in.udacity.com/course/android-development-for-beginners--ud837
• If you want to be an advanced android application developer see: https://www.udacity.com/course/new-android-fundamentals--ud851

Follow up with me

Visit my portfolio website: tahfimul.github.io/TP./