These are the programming languages in my journey, chronologically:

• C
• Assembly
• C++
• Python
• Bash
• C++, again
• C#
• Python, again
• JavaScript
• C#, again
• Java
• now: full-stack with Java, Spring Boot, and Angular

Retrospective

Now looking back, among those languages, I think: working with C++ and Python for my computer vision and robotics projects were the most enjoyable. Why: I could be satisfied with just my laptop, anywhere, especially in 30-plus-minute train rides, without Internet.

The present

Back to the present: I deal with web and middleware applications. The resources that I need are relatively huge:

• IntelliJ IDEA (jokingly said that it can turn our machine to a heater for the cold winter days),
• Internet connection,
• one or two other running applications (usually on other servers),
• Postman,
• databases,
• browser (let's bear in mind on how gluttonous Chrome is with RAM),
• and once a while: Docker.

The struggle

Sure, I can host those locally. But I'll be frank, even with 32 GB of RAM and a high performance multicore processor, I prefer not to host other instances and databases on my own machine. It's like forcing a fully loaded truck to go uphill. Sure, the truck is up for it, but think of the gas! LOL. And I'm being cautious of my electricity bill, since most of us work from home since COVID-19. Shouldn't our employers compensate us for using our own Internet and electricity?

For one particular bug fix ticket, I did have to host a containerized database on my machine. Verdict: not bad. 7/10 I'd do that again.

I wrote this with the thought of missing the old days working offline with C++ and Python, especially these two are the main ingredients of my side projects.

My side projects are now dormant, because in my free time, I prefer to attend to other leisure activities (manga, walking, coffee shops, movies, and SLEEPING) - which are good actually for my health.

Conclusion

Now that I've seen what I can do with Jenkins, AWS, Docker, etc, I am sure that I will always need to work online. The thought of working offline (without Internet) is unfathomable.