On Programming

Programming is really about getting yourself do something. You’re not a programmer unless you have done something and you can show it to everyone. I’ve been struggling with this phenomenon for long, almost five years since I was in the seventh grade. That years I learned about Visual Basic and a bit of C. Not so much, I just got into loops, conditionals and the other basics. And then I left programming and switched to game designing with RPG Maker. And yet, I created nothing. I’ve also committed blogging and ventured through web development, and as you might expected, I came out with nothing.

When I came into high school, I re-learned C because I joined the school’s olympiad team in informatics. My friends were learning Pascal but I was familiar with C. Then I upgraded myself over to C++ and learned various algorithms. I practiced on some online judge such as TOKI Learning Center, Z-Training, and UVA. I would call myself a programmer eventually because I also won several competition. But I only solved problems, not creating something.

I learned Ruby when I was in eleventh grade, particularly because I wanted to be an RGSS scripter. And then I found out that Ruby is just a perfect language for me. I learned it passionately and constantly practicing. I’ve successfully made two games, a Casino-like game and a Snake game. It may be small, but it is a breakthrough for me. For the first time, finally I can call myself a programmer. After five years of learning, I just realized that programming is about crafting something. It’s not only about problem solving, but also creativity.