The Interpreters

moshood Akinleye — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 09:46:48 +0000

So, over the last few weeks, I have started to learn about Programming. Oh, that is an Antithesis. Something else should have come first. My mentor on this technical writing journey, Sunkanmi Fafowora, advised me to learn about Programming. The reason he gave was simple. As a technical writer, I would have to interact with programmers a lot of the time. It is only required that I have basic knowledge of Programming. This way, since the work is usually a collaborative effort, I won’t be constantly left in the lurch when communicating with these Programmers or trying to troubleshoot collaborative errors.

More specifically, I was advised to choose Python as the Programming language and/or type to learn. And phew! I was off to codecademy.com. Here, I have learnt only a few things about Python so far. I have also consulted Edglow on YouTube, thereby watching very concise and edifying videos about Python. Sadly, Edglow uploaded only two videos and stopped. I was salivating like a dog at the sight of a bone after seeing his videos, in the excitement to see the next one, but there was none.

The Initial Lessons

I have learnt that there are three basic things to learn in PYTHON namely Data types, Keywords and Variables. Data to the computer is anything fed into the computer which is either an alphabet, a number or a combination of both. Integers, float, character, string and Boolean are the five examples of Data types.

For Keywords, there are a ton of keywords that are identified by the computer but some of the top ones needed for programming include:

TRUE, FALSE, RETURN, FOR, WHILE, AND, IF and OR.

Variables are the names given to a piece of information or data so that the computer can recognise those data each time the variable is fed into it.

Somewhat, this is beyond the binaries of 0s and 1s I learnt about computers in College. From my communication knowledge, the only concept close to this is Man-Machine communication as one of the types of Communication.

A Sharp Contrast

But step by step, I am beginning to enjoy the journey. It is difficult to think of a language the computer understands as it differs from the normal human language. What I have learnt so far shows me that the language of the computer is not one alien language I haven’t heard before. It is just a mismatch, a combination of the alphabet and numbers I already know, thereby using them as instructions for the computer to act or not to act at certain times when it is interacted with by something (human or non-human).

It also amazes me that some part of this computer language is the opposite of how humans use them. For instance, using the asterisk sign (*) in normal human language denotes something of importance that must not be ignored. In computers, it is an indication that whatever comes after this sign is to be ignored.

Why I think Technical Writers are Interpreters

Summarily, technical writers are like interpreters (not the ones between a Higher Level language and the Machine Language in the Computer language process), but human interpreters who act as middlemen to interpret computer or tech-based products to users.

I cannot wait to uncover more in this journey of learning. Since Focus is sacrosanct to growth, in my next post, I shall be digressing a little into what I may have found as the different classes of Technical Writing and which I should be focusing on.

Au revoir

EXCITEMENT, DISCOVERY AND CHALLENGES- a media guru’s journey to tech begins.

moshood Akinleye — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:04:43 +0000

You don’t necessarily have to take this headline seriously. And that is because I do not see myself as a media guru, but many people do. I see myself as a student who has enjoyed learning within the media space for over a decade. From being a newsroom rat at Tribune Newspapers to the Ministry of Information in Ogun State, Complete Sports in Lagos, OOH firm in Abuja, Digital Ad agency, development media and BTL Marketing. Looks like I have seen it all, right? Enough of media, how did tech get into the story?

Well, the tech industry is a rapidly growing one and it is almost a ubiquitous trade. This may explain why I met Sukanmi Fafowora, a corps member at my office. A calm, focused and very ambitious young man. A Computer science graduate from the University of Lagos and expectedly a programmer. In our short time of meeting, Sukanmi seems to have observed a few of my strengths and is mean about getting me to be better at it and perhaps try something new. I hope nobody has a problem with learning from someone younger. If you do, then you are missing a lot in life and about life.

So, what did Sukanmi want me to do? He simply said, “Mr Moshood, I think you can be a technical writer, and you can earn more than you presently do after learning. Every tech skill requires a minimum of 6 months for the newbie to learn but I believe you can learn in 3 months. These words were enough for me to get into it. And I did.

But at first, my understanding of technical writing was that is it a special kind of writing meant for a specific field of knowledge using jargon or lexicons peculiar to the field. But when Sukanmi sent me a handful of materials to read, I discovered I knew nothing about technical writing.

In my discovery, I found that technical writing is about breaking down and explaining technical terms in software development and tech generally in a simpler, easy-to-understand language to the end user of these products. It includes product features, user guides or manuals, FAQs, and much more. I also found that there are two broad types of technical writing (there could be more). User-focus technical writing and Developer-focus technical writing. My readings summarised that I needed to understand programming to be a respected technical writer. This was an onion bulb for me. I didn’t see it coming.

So, Sukanmi again suggested a few online resources to learn programming from. He advised that I go for Python, stating that it would give me an easy landing to learn as a newbie.

To cut the story short, I have taken the first step on codecademy.com by learning the first module out of 13 modules. Learning to write codes using the # sign and parenthesis is interesting. I know there will be more challenges up front, and I can’t wait to deal with them over time.

For now, the next move is to sign up for the 7-day free trial on codecademy.com and see if I can complete the course before the free trial expires. Meanwhile, this article is also an assignment from my tech mentor, Sukanmi Fafowora. And I want you to watch this space for my progress. I wish myself the best.

DEV Community: moshood Akinleye

The Interpreters

EXCITEMENT, DISCOVERY AND CHALLENGES- a media guru’s journey to tech begins.