Today, I’ve successfully coded my first little game of “Tic Tac Toe” with Python. Granted it is an assignment for the online course that I’m doing on Udemy, and the layout of the structure for the game has already been laid out for me, but I’ve debugged and added a couple more extra features than required and I’m pretty damn proud of myself.

“Features” of my game include:

1. Ability for players to choose between ‘X’ or ‘O’ as marker.
2. Amazing and responsive display of the 9 grid ‘Tic Tac Toe’ board with immediate visual representation of players’ input.
3. Testing user input for any invalid input and immediately prompt them for another input.
4. Ability to start a new game at the end, without the need to re-run the program.
5. Three different endings! You can win, lose, or draw!

Yeah… I think I’ve taken another tiny step forward after this assignment. “Feature” 3 took up a lot of my time. Although it wasn’t required to test for invalid input from the users (the assignment assumes that users will input the necessary value accordingly), I took it as a challenge to code that bit into my game. So instead of crashing the program when the user enters an invalid value, my game prompts the user until the acceptable values are entered. Pretty cool.

Also, the cheap portable monitor which I’ve ordered online, came in this evening, so I’ve been using it as a 2nd monitor in portrait mode so I can see more of my codes. Works well, I’m pleased with my purchase. On top of that, I can also hook the monitor up with my Nintendo Switch. Sweet.

This afternoon, I’ve came across this Pomodoro Technique which claims to maximise productivity. I’m going to put it to the test by applying it to picking up Python by using this Pomodor timer app I’ve downloaded from the Android “Play Store”. With the downtime I have during work, I try to supplement my learning by reading the ebook (on Python for beginners) or watching the course’s videos on my phone. When I’m back home at night (or during my days off), I’ll work on the practice on my laptop.