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The Gate

Developer

Programmer

Coder

These are some labels that describe the people I admire. The type of person I see myself being and want to be.

For the longest time it felt like that title has eluded me. I never had any formal computer science classes. All of my programing skills and knowledge has come from trying things on my own or through tutorials. I have had people through the years reach out and help as well.

For the longest time I always felt like I as trapped behind a gate. I can see all those amazing developers and interact with them in small ways. But I couldn’t enter the gate and join them.

But why?

Well it’s just my skills have always been lacking compared to ideas I have had. Developers are a diverse group of people and with a wide range of capabilities. From my journey to not knowing any code to building apps for myself I have come a long way. But for longest time I felt like I was still trapped behind the gate. Even after I made and published an app. I still felt lacking the fundamentals of certain things I was trapped only able to watch from a distance.

After I had my first app and got the idea for my next app there was a long long pause. I must have built this new app too many times to admit. But something happened as I was continuing on this path. Going from UIKit to an all programatic UIKit approach to finally a SwiftUI and CoreData approach. And this isn’t even to mention all the life changes that took time away from development. But despite all that I finally have a working prototype and it feels incredible.

This app is something I have wanted for a long time and using it is the best feeling. I am for the first time starting to feel like I might just be entering the area behind the gate.

Building this app has taught me so many important fundamentals that are widely applicable to many different apps. Like many out there it is a triple column app that has lots of views and saves data. I for the first time am starting to feel like a full on developer. It is a great feeling and I will share more here when the time comes. I definitely want to just talk about it candidly but it still needs more and I haven’t decided on a name. But as soon as it’s ready I will definitely talk more about it.

So if you feel like you are on the other side of the gate and can’t come in you’re not alone. And don’t worry you will get in its just a matter of time.