Moving from small programs to building applications
For most of my career I have always written scripts or small programs as a systems administrator and data engineer. I used powershell, python, bash and SQL. While scripting involved programming and writing code, none of those small programs spanned across multiple files and directories. Now that I am (re)learning to program, it is quite interesting that I am choosing to become a software engineer…
The author, a systems administrator and data engineer, has long written scripts and small programs using various tools such as PowerShell, Python, Bash, and SQL. However, as they delve into software engineering, they find the transition from writing small programs to building applications to be quite different and more complex.
One major difference is that applications consist of multiple files and directories, unlike the small programs they are accustomed to. This complexity makes it harder to understand the various components that work together, such as the connection to the database, opening files, connecting to servers, and uploading and modifying files.
The author also notes that errors in larger applications are more challenging to track down. Debugging takes longer, and they must determine the source of each problem, whether it's an issue with the database schema or an incorrect connection to the database.
Despite the challenges, learning to program from scratch has been a privilege for the author. They share that tools like vibecoding have made the process easier, even as they grapple with the complexities of modern software development.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
