Programming

I felt like learning something new. This time web related. Eventually, I arrived at Kotlin. Between my background experience as a Java Web Developer and an Apple Developer, I thought Kotlin sounded like a good investment and fun to play with.

With Kotlin I should be able to bring forward all that Java EE knowledge I have while also learning a new language. Given that Kotlin is also used for native Android development, combined with the experience of building iOS apps, I could also expand to another mobile platform in the future.


Some combination of cryptic error messages that I had to decode before I could have a development environment ready, open-source plugins no longer supported, out of date documentation, buggy releases, patchy tools meant that I had to jump through hoops before I could write even a single line of code.

I won’t go into detail of every problem I run to. What I will say, is that it took hours of debugging, googling, reading through support forums, trial and error before I could finally focus on the task. Building something while learning a new language.

I have over 15 years of experience as a Software Engineer and it still took me hours to go through every issue. How would a newcomer deal with any of that? How accessible is programming today? How is it fun? What happened to:

10 PRINT "Hello, World!"
20 END
  • Coding - “It’s like the 80s all over again, where you plug in a machine, and you can instantly start coding. I for one miss that.”
  • Open-source - “I am not sure what to make of open-source software anymore.”
  • PICO-8
  • GB Studio

What is this website?

This is a personal website, at the outskirts of the web, away from social media and publishing platforms. This website surfaces social, racial, economic traits and explores human relationships. It highlights the conditions that contribute to one's personal success or downfall. It shares stories that act as a reminder that life is messy, complex, nuanced, diverse. It aims to bring the world closer together. It reaches out to those that feel lost, lonely, inadequate and outcasts. I am with you.