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You already got a lot of replies about your first paragraph here; I wanted to emphasize and second your next paragraph though: things like setting up environmen

by godot 9y ago

You already got a lot of replies about your first paragraph here; I wanted to emphasize and second your next paragraph though: things like setting up environments, by far, is what prevents people from getting into coding. It even applies to both beginners and professionals! (anecdotally, I know that mentally I've resisted getting into iOS dev all these years is because setting up the whole toolchain to even start a hello world iphone app feels too much work for side projects.) Thinking about my own growing-up, while it's true that at school I've had classes about PC Logo, Quick Pascal/Turbo Pascal (and I've had fun with those and enjoyed them, but they were no more than class assignments to me), what really got me started to build stuff in the real world (as side projects back in middle and high school) was essentially the web. Realizing that I could open up Notepad in Windows, with no extra tools, write some HTML in there (even some simple Javascript with alert boxes!), I could then double click the .html file to open it in Internet Explorer and see stuff I've written in code to run, was what really got me into taking coding seriously. Better yet, in the late 90s, HTML code in web sites were not complex, which brings the possibility of just viewing source on any HTML page and understanding what the HTML tags or JS code do and figuring out how to replicate some functionality on your own web page. I have a theory that once you put someone in front of a system where you can immediately start tweaking attributes, properties and code, press a button to run it to see its effect, most people would be interested enough to keep going. It's how you get to that point of having that system in front of you. In most cases this isn't simple. Even in the case of PC Logo, having to get through installation and running the program and figuring out the first things you can do, can be obstacles. Maybe web pages and simple HTML are a good place to start?

cr0sh 9y ago
You have a good point in that figuring out how to set everything up to code is a hindrance for those wanting to learn to code. My start in "real programming" was after I received my TRS-80 Color Computer "for Christmas" (my parents actually purchased it much earlier for me, with my understanding that I wouldn't be getting much for actual Christmas - not a problem, I was thrilled). Plug it in, turn it on, and bam - there you were at a flashing prompt, begging you to type in some BASIC code - which, there was a "tutorial manual" helpfully provided to teach yourself with. Today, there isn't much like it any more to do the same. The closest would be the various online REPL systems for various languages; these fix the issue of setting up an environment, but very few (there are some) are designed to teach the beginner (to the language, or in general) programming.
cutler 9y ago
Sadly, current trends in front-end dev (yes, I'm looking at you, React) make this pleasure a thing of the past. The front-end tooling required to produce today's web apps is soul-destroying even for seasoned devs who have survived Enterprise Java config hell. Maven's a piece of cake compared to webpack.

by godot 9y ago

cr0sh 9y ago

You have a good point in that figuring out how to set everything up to code is a hindrance for those wanting to learn to code. My start in "real programming" was after I received my TRS-80 Color Computer "for Christmas" (my parents actually purchased it much earlier for me, with my understanding that I wouldn't be getting much for actual Christmas - not a problem, I was thrilled). Plug it in, turn it on, and bam - there you were at a flashing prompt, begging you to type in some BASIC code - which, there was a "tutorial manual" helpfully provided to teach yourself with. Today, there isn't much like it any more to do the same. The closest would be the various online REPL systems for various languages; these fix the issue of setting up an environment, but very few (there are some) are designed to teach the beginner (to the language, or in general) programming.

cutler 9y ago

Sadly, current trends in front-end dev (yes, I'm looking at you, React) make this pleasure a thing of the past. The front-end tooling required to produce today's web apps is soul-destroying even for seasoned devs who have survived Enterprise Java config hell. Maven's a piece of cake compared to webpack.