Oregon Trail

Coding is like the Oregon Trail. You've got your wagon, your horses, your supplies, a driver, passengers, and a whole lot of obstacles to overcome before you get to Oregon.

The covered wagon represents the program you're developing. Starting from the outside and working our way inward, the cover is the glossy buttons and the airtight security. It protects the program from the hazardous environment, but it also is a symbol of . Holding up the canvas cover we have some struts; the structure of the program holding everything together. It is connected to the bottom platform of the wagon that carries the goods from place to place. The wheels enable the program to glide through the rugged terrain, transporting & translating from point A to B.

Any program must run on some sort of computing device, whether it's a powerful supercomputer or a cheapo digital watch from Walmart. Both devices have some sort of processor or the workhorse of the unit. It seems fitting that the horses pulling the carriage represent this processor.

The processor can't process without a specific set of instructions. These instructions are given by the driver. Always encouraging the horses to perform better, to become stronger, to run faster, to be more efficient. The driver is the programmer. They have the vision of going from point A to point B.

There are many other representations I will expound upon later: Buffalo, fording a river, the supplies within the wagon, the rifle, the passengers, a broken axle, influenza and trading posts.