I nearly forgot that the second Tuesday in October is Ada Lovelace Day! I wanted to get this message out before the day had come and gone.
She’s best known for producing what’s considered to be the definitive documentation for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which was then only a proposed design that could not have been built with the tools of that era. She also realized that the Engine, primitive as it was, could have applications beyond just number-crunching. For the work she did, she’s considered to be the first computer programmer, and I also consider her the first to do my current job of developer advocate.
Today, Ada Lovelace Day commemorates and celebrates the work of women in STEM — that is, science, engineering, technology, and math. Ada Lovelace Day will probably be over by the time you read this, but nothing’s stopping you from some belated celebration!
Want to make sure that you really understand Git and all its workings? Want to learn from someone who really knows their stuff? Then join tonight’s St. Pete .NET Meetup virtual session with Jesse Liberty, who’ll start with the basics, but ramp up to cover advanced topics such as rebasing, interactive rebasing, and bisect (which is for finding the commit that broke your code).
…and when I got a developer relations job at Microsoft in late 2008 and had to relearn C# in a hurry, I turned to this Jesse Liberty book:
So along with his Microsoft and Xamarin MVP credentials, and his courses for Pluralsight, LinkedIn Learning, and Packt, there’s also my endorsement (for what it’s worth) that he can teach tricky tech topics in a way that makes it “stick”.
I’m from that generation that did programming assignments in C and got into iOS development when Objective-C was the only way to do it, so this comic provided me with a little nostalgia blast.
I’m bringing back my Tampa-based programming meetup! It used to be Tampa iOS Meetup, and then Programmers of Portables, but I’m broadening its coverage and renamed it Think Like a Coder!
Think Like a Coder! is a meetup with a mission, which is to help with the programmer’s biggest challenge: How do you apply what you’ve learned about programming to actually write programs? How do you take what you’ve learned about loops, branches, functions, objects, and so on and turn them into applications?
During each meetup, we’ll take on a problem and try to solve it with code. As with my other meetups, these will be “code along with me” exercises — we’ll all learn by doing.
This session will cover scraping — the process of reading the contents of web pages — and then performing actions based on those contents. We’ll work together in JavaScript (and possibly Python) to look at how we can write a program that can answer the question “Are Publix subs on sale?”.
Once again, it’s September 13th — the 256th day of the year (on non-leap years)! As the number of values that can be expressed in a single byte, 256 means something to programmers, and as the largest power of 2 that will fit into 365, the 256th day of the year is a perfect excuse to declare it as Day of the Programmer.
Here are some things that you might find useful on this special day…
There’s Humble Bundle’s Python Superpowers bundle, which provides a lot of goodies for $25, including some really good Python video courses, ebooks, and a 6-month free license of PyCharm Professional Edition!
Platform integration: you can easily upload creations to different platforms. If you want to get your project out easily and quickly, this is an option for you.
Constantly updated: The developers are hard at work updating Godot. Since it’s free, this is a pretty cool aspect, so I recommend throwing a few donations dollars their way!
It’s free: It’s completely free! No packages! No subscription models! No memberships!
Great User Interface: The UI is easy to use and read, leading to better and more comprehensive game development
Scripting: The ease of use for scripting is actually a lot easier than many different engines. They use their own invented script, titled GDScript. It’s easier to pick up and translates beautifully into finished projects and assets
Community and online resources: As I said before, the community for Godot is supportive and has a huge presence online. I got lost in a YouTube rabbit hole looking at some Godot tutorials videos alone. Again, I recommend the subreddit for engaging with the community and checking out the actual Godot site for some demos and tutorials for beginners.
Seamless Downloads: You can download it right from the browser and get going immediately with the self-contained program. Have at it!
How can you learn Godot Game Engine with Terry Cavanaugh?
That’s the plan — he’s going to learn Godot by building a game, and he’s inviting people to come along for the ride. You can even build one as he builds one.
I think I’ll check it out. It sounds like fun, and might be a interesting way to put my recently-acquired gaming laptop through some new paces.
