{
  "id": 9214041,
  "title": "Moving from small programs to building applications",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/22/moving-from-small-programs-to-building-applications",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-22T22:10:30.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/blogher/moving-from-small-programs-to-building-applications-29kg"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.\n\nOne 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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nDespite 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.",
  "summary": "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…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}