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Would you mind taking a look at https://github.com/stefanhaustein/codechat https://github.com/stefanhaustein/codechat ? WDYT?

• beagle3 9y ago
  Can't try on an Android right now, did watch the YouTube and looked at the examples. First, it looks awesome. You should do a Show HN sooner than later. Having a few decades of experience under my belt, I'm sure I'm blind to some things newcomers/starters would see, but what I did notice: - Camel case is bad for mobile typing, and bad for non-coders in my experience; underscore is better for the latter but not for mobile typing, so that's not really a solution unless you can add an underscore or some other character (non-minus-dash? center-dot?) that can be pressed directly. - Case sensitivity in general is best avoided in beginner languages, which if adopted might make the above point moot. - I personally find the pairing of "end" and ":" confusing, possibly because of years of "begin/end", "{/}" and "indent: dedent" experience. Most people seem to have a better intuitive grasp of the indent/dedent than any other block scoping, but for mobile I guess ":/end" is acceptable although "{/}" might be better. - What is the distinction between "let" and "variable" ? - The "#number" syntax is not intuitive - I goess it's a replacement for function names or line numbers, for refernece purposes? - One of the conceptual problems that some people have is with the "=" sign for assignment, as it conflicts with its use in mathematics. All overcome it sooner or later, but when I've shown APL ( where assigment of 3 to a is written A <- 3 ) or Pascal ( A := 3 ) to non-programmers, this confusion never comes up. I would recommend keeping = for comparison, and using another symbol for assignments. - Consider adding a variable value display. I've used PythonTutor[1] to teach basic JavaScript and Python non-programmers with great success. A complete value trace is likely beyond the scope of codechat, but a variable display might be very useful. All in all, I think it's awesome. Are you familiar with Atari VCS 2600 BASIC[0]? That's what it reminded me of. [0] http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/16.1 http://boston.conman.org/2015/06/16.1 [1] http://www.pythontutor.com/ http://www.pythontutor.com/
  • dukoid 9y ago
    Thanks! Case sensitivity: I'd prefer to make the language case-insensitive (or at least avoid uppercase in anything builtin), but then I'd need some other way to distinguish types and other identifiers. Any suggestions? There is already an issue for this: https://github.com/stefanhaustein/codechat/issues/1 https://github.com/stefanhaustein/codechat/issues/1 Blocks: I was using {} before but it was inconvenient on mobile. Significant indent also seemed tricky. So I went for this combination for now. let vs. variable: let declares a constant. Typing effort for let vs. variable is on purpose O:) The #number syntax is for identifying specific instances if they are not explicitly named. Makes sure editing an "on x" trigger replaces it (opposed to adding another one). Assignment syntax: Will change to := as suggested. Variable value display: Will add "something" to do this. I wasn't familiar with Atari VCS 2600 BASIC, but I must admit that my first programming language was (Spectrum) BASIC and I am trying to avoid some of the issues I found confusing in 1983 O:)
• pjmlp 9y ago
  Looks nice. Maybe some kind of GUI would be better, as a way to ease typing commands. Something like Pythonista or Lisping on iOS.