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The archive

Andrea Kost Avila

analog algorithm
perspective
motion
interaction
blinkenlichten

Looking back at my first semester, where I learned the basics of programming, I can say that coding is difficult to grasp when you have had no prior experience. It was often hard for me to understand. However, once I started to get the logic and system behind it, things became a bit clearer.

One of the most important lessons I learned is that it’s crucial to understand your code. To achieve this, you should keep it simple and understand both individual lines of code and their connections. I often had to research specific commands and took notes until I fully understood my code. This allowed me to modify it as needed and apply newly learned commands independently in future projects.

However, as a beginner, you also need a lot of patience. Even when I followed instructions exactly, my code often didn’t work. Finding errors as a beginner is extremely difficult and frustrating. I often had to rely on help from others, as I had no prior knowledge. Apart from the project "blinkenlichten", the course was very theoretical. We spent a lot of time just listening, and it was hard to retain everything because we didn’t immediately put it into practice. Even after successfully programming something once, it didn’t guarantee that I would be able to do it again the next time. Overall, I would say that programming is quite hard for me. I understand that it has a creative aspect and is highly relevant today, but it is too technical and theoretical for me. I feel that we covered a lot in the first semester, but much of it I only understood in theory and wouldn’t be able to fully implement on my own. And the thought that this was just the basics of programming is a bit discouraging.

However, the course changed my perspective on the web. It’s fascinating that theoretically, anything is possible on the internet. I no longer see myself just as a user—I can often imagine how things are programmed. Of course, as a beginner, I couldn’t recreate them, but before, I never even thought about how the web works. In theory, there are no limits—you just need the competence and understanding. In this sense, my perception of the internet has definitely changed.