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I taught a 2-hour session to a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers back in December - obviously, not as big a deal as the author, but still something I

I taught a 2-hour session to a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers back in December - obviously, not as big a deal as the author, but still something I'm proud of - and ran in to the same issues. These were all students who either had done some programming or were interested in it. I started with "ok, so, first, go to your command line..." and it went sideways from there. One thing that the students taught me that helps overcome some of these things is a site called https://repl.it/ https://repl.it/ . I stopped my plan, started using it, and taught the rest of the class using repl instead in order to focus on the concept I was trying to teach. Obviously, as a professional software engineer you need to know about git, command line, etc., but those aren't what software engineering is. They rarely excite new comers to the field. Using repl.it helped to get to the core ideas faster for people who don't really know as much.

rpeden 7y ago
If you enjoy repl.it, you might enjoy StackBlitz as well. I've had fun using StackBlitz to put together some prototypes of React apps. I love repl.it too, of course! It's nice to have several great tools to choose from.
- jkingsbery 7y ago
  Interesting, thanks for the reference!
flukus 7y ago
I think there's a half way between both because the command line is a REPL, even the awful windows one. I think that's a better starting point than a web based IDE (I don't think repl.it is actual a REPL) because you can naturally expand to more tools, have access to your own files, etc. If you start out that way then setting things like core.editor become natural extensions of what they've already learned and not some magic incantation to get started.
- jkingsbery 7y ago
  Yeah... I tried that. It was confusing because different people had different operating systems (and therefore different command lines), and since they weren't familiar with the command line at all I would have spent the time talking about something completely unrelated to the thing I wanted to teach about. I see where you're coming from with your suggestion, but I think in practice it contributes to information overload and intimidation to a large part of the population.

rpeden 7y ago

If you enjoy repl.it, you might enjoy StackBlitz as well. I've had fun using StackBlitz to put together some prototypes of React apps. I love repl.it too, of course! It's nice to have several great tools to choose from.

jkingsbery 7y ago
Interesting, thanks for the reference!

flukus 7y ago

I think there's a half way between both because the command line is a REPL, even the awful windows one. I think that's a better starting point than a web based IDE (I don't think repl.it is actual a REPL) because you can naturally expand to more tools, have access to your own files, etc. If you start out that way then setting things like core.editor become natural extensions of what they've already learned and not some magic incantation to get started.

jkingsbery 7y ago
Yeah... I tried that. It was confusing because different people had different operating systems (and therefore different command lines), and since they weren't familiar with the command line at all I would have spent the time talking about something completely unrelated to the thing I wanted to teach about. I see where you're coming from with your suggestion, but I think in practice it contributes to information overload and intimidation to a large part of the population.