DEV Community: Galadriel Alethea Lynn

What is Git & Why Does it Make Me Sweat

Galadriel Alethea Lynn — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 16:49:01 +0000

Git is a modern version control system that gives full access to a projects source code and all its changes, branches, and iterations. Git allows individuals and teams to create, modify, share, and collaborate on projects together. It tracks changes that were made, when the changes were made, and by whom they were made. It also allows you to run tests, fix bugs, and contribute code without disturbing the master file by being able to create and work on local branches created off the master code. This way numerous individuals from anywhere can simultaneously work on the project without time or location constraints.

A Git repository contains the entire collection of a project’s files and folders and all the revision history of each file. This helps to keep projects protected and organized. There are a couple of different ways to use Git. You can use the command line of your systems native terminal to directly execute specific commands to copy, change, combine, or create code. You can also use an application like Github to execute specific commands and certain text editors like Atom come with basic Git and Github integration built in.

I think all of this sounds fantastic. It makes sense and I can understand the importance of what this kind of version control has done for developers. I even understand the basic theory behind it but I am finding it hard to learn how to use! I have used it five times recently to try and push my personal website through Git into Github and have caused my personal website project to burn villages down exactly those five times. I’ve used it to make pull requests successfully but for some reason each time I try to navigate inside of Git to commit and push changes to my Github project I end up sweating and swearing. Builds character right? I can tell by the fearful and concerned looks on my classmates faces as I flail about that my personal struggle with Git is also helping them build character.

Here are a few of the unintended results of me tripping around in Git. Yesterday, I somehow accidentally cloned a version of my project within itself causing everything but the title of my personal site to disappear. And the font that my title reverted to made me want to delete the whole thing and hide until the spring. What was interesting was that all of my code was still there in my text editor but the css all of sudden decided that it was broken and wouldn’t let anything communicate with it. I’ve accidentally merged older commits to the master branch overriding all the changes I spent hours on and created expletive inducing mayhem when trying to revert/reset/undo those merges. I trip around in there so often I’m not even sure of what I’m talking about!

But I am determined to learn how to successfully use Git. So determined that I signed up to give a little talk about Git in class next week. It will be like performance art. Nobody will know what I’m talking about but the sincerity will be intense!

Do I Really Have to Code 24/7 to Be a Good Programmer?

Galadriel Alethea Lynn — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 16:08:46 +0000

I got into the idea of becoming a programmer for several reasons. But the reason that actually got me started on doing the work of becoming a programmer was the excitement other people had about being programmers. They also seemed really happy with their lives. I wanted what they had.

Then I started to hear other things. Things like, to be a good programmer you had to sell your life and soul to the time lords. That to be a good programmer you had to program twenty-four hours a day everyday. That to be a good programmer you had to write code that would create more time in which you could then use to write more code. I panicked a little inside. I know me and I know that I don’t and would never feel that way about anything. Do I give up now or do I try and contort myself into someone else’s idea of a good programmer and just hope that I’ll like it once I’ve mutated?

Articles like, How to be TRULY Competitive for Software Jobs, by Raymond Gan started showing up in my sphere. After reading them I would get discouraged. I could see some merits in what they were saying. I could get behind and even get excited to try some of the things they would suggest a good programmer should do. But the general tone of articles like that one would leave me worrying and doubtful of my future potential as a developer. Do I really have to build my own programming language, do I really have to build my own mini-version of Rails, do I really have to build my own mini-React from scratch?! I wasn’t worried that I could never do those things, I worried because I knew I probably would never want to do those things.

Then this week our class went on some tours of businesses where real life programmers are working. And you know what happened? Not a single one of those programmers ever gave us advice that sounded like or felt like Gandalf shouting, “You shall not pass!” as he brought down his staff to block the path of the Balrog Demon in pursuit. No, they said things like, “I love my job”, “I love the people I work with,” “I love the company I work for,” “I love the projects I get to work on,” “I don’t do a lot of coding after work,” “I go home and hang with my friends and family after work,” and “Sometimes I do a little coding on the side but it’s for fun!”

They encouraged us to study and study hard, to do a little coding every day so we didn’t lose the skill, to get connected and ask questions, but to also have a life and to take care of ourselves. I liked every place we visited. I liked the culture they built in their workplaces. I liked the way they never felt like their work was work. I liked the way they treated their profession and each other. I found myself once again wanting what they have.

What Becoming a Programmer Has Done For Me

Galadriel Alethea Lynn — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:55:45 +0000

SSH initialization
eval ssh-agent
ssh-add ~/keys
git init
branching
merging
pull requests
git
github
dev
command line
loop
for
while
for each
elements
tags
procedural
object oriented
functional data structures
functions
control flow
front end
back end
full-stack
and on and on and on…

The words above aren’t even really the ones that used to make my eyes glaze over and my mind go into black and white Fleischer Brothers cartoon mode. As little as 4 months ago I would have said that I wasn’t just not interested in computers, coding, programming, that stuff that those nerds do, but that I was also maybe slightly opposed to it. Not interested to the point of disregarding it as something non-important to me and maybe even suspect.

And that’s because I knew nothing about what programmers actually do other than the silly tropes that you see in movies and TV. Also, there’s so much misinformed fear around technology and around those who know how to wield it. Don’t get me wrong, there has been a lot of bad that has been done that couldn’t have been done without tech and there are bad players out there. But that is true for almost everything. Medicine, the arts, humanitarian work, etc., all have a history of bad players abusing their mediums and their platforms. That’s the unfortunate truth about being human and living on this planet. But there’s so much beauty and good that comes from all of it as well.

I am not exactly sure what the specific change of heart was for me but once I let a little of the programming light shine in through the cracks of my defensiveness it snowballed into a full on obsession. The first thing that I noticed when I looked straight at it instead of giving it all the side-eye was how it made my brain actually feel. It lit me up like I haven’t been since I was a kid in science class. The second thing I noticed was that it energizes me! I always thought programming all day would turn my brains into mushrooms and marshmallows and twist my body into the shape of the letter C. I was so so wrong.

At the end of an all-day marathon of coding and researching at school I go home pumped-up and ready for more! I think about it all day and night. I listen to podcasts in my car on the drive home, I put on audio books about programming while making dinner or taking my walks, I talk about it with whoever will listen, and then I spend the rest of my evening either doing more code or reviewing the things I learned earlier in the day. I lean into it like I haven’t anything else. It makes me focus focus focus. And as a trauma survivor who has spent her whole life living with complex PTSD and all the ways that it hijacks my brain and body this new ability to focus on something other than my pain and fear has been life-changing. That is putting it mildly.

I feel real joy again for the first time since I can remember. Programming is creative in ways I never imagined. It brings me so much joy just to make things and to figure things out, it’s like playing with puzzles all day. Knowing that I can use programming to make things that are useful to other people pushes that joy right over the edge into, dare I say it, euphoria. I forgot how much I just love to learn and programming requires it. In programming I’m always learning something, which maybe springs from the non-repeating nature of the task. I learn and create and exert my imagination and challenge my inner-complainer and critic. Coding is collaborative and the developer community is refreshingly open and immensely supportive. I feel like I have found my people.

Self-Learning

Galadriel Alethea Lynn — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 13:59:09 +0000

I wish I could just download everything I ever wanted to know, like how to code, directly into my brain. But I’m not Neo and this is not the Matrix and that’s of course not possible, yet. I like to think that most things are possible given enough time and knowledge, but until direct knowledge download is available there is self-learning.

Self learning is the act of teaching oneself, with or without help from others, what you want to learn, how you want to learn it, and when you want to learn it. This way you can set your own goals, prioritize those goals, find and decide on what materials and resources you want to use to help you reach those goals, and decide on the time frame and rhythm of achieving those learning goals. And it’s never been easier to do so! With access to the internet you can teach yourself almost anything now. Want to learn how to walk the dog with your yo-yo, play the ukulele, or how to code? You can just jump online and google it! Of course there are other ways and resources to aid you in teaching yourself and that’s the beauty of being an autodidact, you get to decide what works best for you!

Currently I’m teaching myself how to code. The first step I took on this journey was clarifying why I wanted to learn to code. Doing this has helped me decide what to focus on because there is an overwhelming amount of information out there on how to code! Like so much that it almost kept me from moving forward. But clarifying why I want to learn to code and what I want to do with it once I learn it helps me narrow down what information is useful and what is not. It’s a fluid process and looks like however I need it to look like in order to achieve my desired learning outcomes.

There are also many learning methods to teach yourself something. Tim Ferriss has a method for learning anything fast. Jonathan Levi has a method for becoming a superlearner. These are only two examples of methods for learning and teaching yourself anything but there are so many more. And this is great because again it points back to the freedom and flexibility that self-learning offers when figuring out and deciding for yourself what works and what doesn’t. For a good read about teaching oneself to code try Clive Thompson’s “Ten Lessons I Learned While Teaching Myself to Code” https://tim.blog/2019/03/21/learn-to-code/.