Preface

This is the unedited, word-for-word Preface of my upcoming book “Fundamentals in Programming”. Also, all of this is true.

I was in my third year of high school when I first got my Playstation 1.

After obsessing for over a year about Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, my dreams finally came true on my birthday that year. I cannot sleep the night before, and will not sleep the night after (Do not do this at home, kids.) The next year became a blur: I played a lot of role-playing games and strategy games, from Final Fantasy Tactics to Legend of Legaia to Valkyrie Profile. My grades did not suffer much- being a high school student, there weren't any challenging subjects, and my social life… well, I'm not exactly a people person. I have my gamer friends, and they are enough.

However, one game really got my interest: Final Fantasy 7. I obsessed over it for so long that the system timer of the game became red and got stuck on 99:99:99. My friends and I discussed for hours about which optimal characters, equipment and materia combinations to use, the side quests and unlockables, ways to solve the game differently, and so on. However, almost every argument came down to one rumor: How to make the heroine survive.

In the game, Aeris, the heroine, will die in the hands of Sephiroth, the main antagonist. However, several sites and forums in the internet hinted that there is a way to avoid it. That became our quest: our mission, THE mission, of my small group of friends. We scoured the web for information, big or small, about the said rumor. We posted in forums, we asked the chatrooms, we emailed everyone (even the creators of the game) to know more. We tried everything: opening specific treasure boxes, collecting specific items (in a specific order), going through the game with only one character, as fast as possible, etc., etc…

After I finished college, I realized: THIS is exactly what Programmers do.

No, not obsess over games. Programmers gather information, both right and wrong. We analyze the information, looking for clues and solutions. Then, after that, we will try every possible angle to solve the problem, and finish our mission. No matter how many dead ends, no matter what the odds are, or what manner of Sephiroth-of-an-algorithm you are facing, you will TRY everything to save Aeris.

In the end, we found out that it is impossible to stop Sephiroth from killing Aeris. Nevertheless, the journey to that conclusion was awfully fun, and well worth playing for 99:99:99 XD