I just wrapped up my first CLI project, which was equal parts challenging and engaging. Best Music is a gem that scrapes Pitchfork.com and returns the previous 12 “Best New Albums.” You can browse by genre or score as well as generate a chronological list of albums. It was a ton of fun to build, and I actually intend on firing-up the program weekly to check out new music without the hassle of having to click through to each album review page for scores and descriptions.
Something I’ve always enjoyed about the structure of programming languages–and something that’s been frequently emphasized, thus far, in the Flatiron course–is how programming often reflects the real world (for our purposes here, let’s just take “real world” to mean the non-virtual, non-digital planes of existence). In building-up these digital logic systems, we often resort to organizational and philosophical structures that have held reign in our non-virtual lives, often for generations. This, to me, is fascinating.
In undergrad, back in the early-aughts, I got by without a computer. I made use of the various computer labs on campus and at the library but otherwise operated PC-free. I was, honestly, kind of a luddite, utilizing technology only for the bare essentials. I think this is what makes my path to Flatiron School rather interesting.