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Imagine a world where the ability to make a personal app like this is actually as easy as making a home-cooked meal; a skill passed from parent to child in the

Imagine a world where the ability to make a personal app like this is actually as easy as making a home-cooked meal; a skill passed from parent to child in the natural course of growing up.

_bxg1 7y ago
With kids today playing with things like the Swift Playground on iPad, I don't think we're far from it
saagarjha 7y ago
Cooking is orders of magnitude harder for me than making an app, so I’d think we’re already there…
- sevencolors 7y ago
  Dunno what you learning style but some folks appreciate this site http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
- machtesh 7y ago
  Gosh I wish it was the opposite to me! Cooking seems fairly easy and making apps seems daunting. I started a newsletter with very quick tips on cooking if you ever want to learn. It's easier than you think! https://aldente.substack.com https://aldente.substack.com
- nine_k 7y ago
  You normally finish cooking within a few hours. Making a worthwhile mobile app in a few hours is still mostly a dream. When cooking, you make a fresh copy of a meal according to a recipe. A fresh copy of an app is of not much use; it's as if you needed to invent a new recipe and then cook it. Cooking really tasty dishes takes experience; but the same holds for software engineering.
- mattkrause 7y ago
  Do you want to learn? If so, here’s some advice. 1. Start with an “easy” cookbook. There’s a whole genre of cookbooks for people starting out in their own or newly single dads. One of my first was “Dad’s Own Cookbook”, which has decent recipes that aren’t a huge production. After that, get the “Joy of Cooking”, which has a huge number of recipes from many cuisines. Also, take a look at Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. You may not be interested in many of the recipes (e.g., aspic) or even French food, but I found it very helpful to see how a “master” recipe could be forked into many different dishes. 2. When you make something for the first time, follow these rules. - Read the ENTIRE recipe carefully before you start. - Follow it exactly. Don’t substitute anything or “add your own twist”. You gotta eat every day, so you’ll get a chance to do that soon. - Prep everything in advance. Dice the onions and put them in a bowl. Open up the can of tomatoes. Peel the carrots, chop them, and put them in another bowl. Measure the spices out into a shot glass. Yes, you will have to do a few more dishes. Yes, you will have some dead time while the oil heats up or the onions soften. When you’ve more experience, you can start interleaving things but in the meantime, you’ll avoid burning things while you learn how much time and attention various things take. - Clean as you go. Having a cramped, cluttered counter stresses me out and often leads to mistakes. - Try new recipes out under low-stakes conditions, not when you’re hosting your boss and girlfriend’s parents. 3. Get a decent knife and learn how to use it. You don’t need a $500 Japanese Santoku, but get something decent and keep it sharp. There are standard ways to dice an onion (etc). Do them smoothly first and the speed will come. If you’ve got friends in food service, they might be willing to help. (Exception: tourné is fairly silly) 4. Have fun and don’t take this too seriously. If all else fails, just order pizza.
- gwd 7y ago
  I've cooked lots of tasty, nutritious food in half an hour, and I rarely spend more than an hour cooking. I can only dream of a world where I could write an app in an hour that would be as enjoyable to use as the food I can cook in an hour is enjoyable to eat!
  - notduncansmith 7y ago
    I think game jams probably get closest to this proportion of work:enjoyment in software.
  - nradov 7y ago
    Nothing takes half an hour if you count shopping, prep work, and cleanup.
- 101008 7y ago
  I think the hardest part of an app is distribution, sharing, etc (I am not talking about being popular, but signing the app, upload to a marketplace, etc). I think theere could be an analogy about cooking for yourself in your ktichen (developing local, the app works on your phone), or cooking for a lot of people in a enviroment which you dont know (a friend's kitchen, etc). You know that i fyou don't use your utensils, or your favourite pan, or your hoven (you know exactly the times and temperature), it won't be the same.
FearNotDaniel 7y ago
That's pretty much the way life was for me in 1982. Of course, you couldn't make an app 'like this' in the 8-bit days - no networking, no onboard camera, no touch screen - but my Dad & I sat literally at the dinner table and wrote home-cooked apps together. We learned to code together, but he taught me how to make the computer do useful things: as a language teacher he created quiz games that he could take in to use in his high school classroom. I seem to remember designing custom fonts to get the accents right on the French words (did I mention, no Unicode?)

Imagine a world where the ability to make a personal app like this is actually as easy as making a home-cooked meal; a skill passed from parent to child in the natural course of growing up.

_bxg1 7y ago

With kids today playing with things like the Swift Playground on iPad, I don't think we're far from it

saagarjha 7y ago

Cooking is orders of magnitude harder for me than making an app, so I’d think we’re already there…

sevencolors 7y ago
Dunno what you learning style but some folks appreciate this site http://www.cookingforengineers.com/ http://www.cookingforengineers.com/
machtesh 7y ago
Gosh I wish it was the opposite to me! Cooking seems fairly easy and making apps seems daunting. I started a newsletter with very quick tips on cooking if you ever want to learn. It's easier than you think! https://aldente.substack.com https://aldente.substack.com
nine_k 7y ago
You normally finish cooking within a few hours. Making a worthwhile mobile app in a few hours is still mostly a dream. When cooking, you make a fresh copy of a meal according to a recipe. A fresh copy of an app is of not much use; it's as if you needed to invent a new recipe and then cook it. Cooking really tasty dishes takes experience; but the same holds for software engineering.
mattkrause 7y ago
Do you want to learn? If so, here’s some advice. 1. Start with an “easy” cookbook. There’s a whole genre of cookbooks for people starting out in their own or newly single dads. One of my first was “Dad’s Own Cookbook”, which has decent recipes that aren’t a huge production. After that, get the “Joy of Cooking”, which has a huge number of recipes from many cuisines. Also, take a look at Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. You may not be interested in many of the recipes (e.g., aspic) or even French food, but I found it very helpful to see how a “master” recipe could be forked into many different dishes. 2. When you make something for the first time, follow these rules. - Read the ENTIRE recipe carefully before you start. - Follow it exactly. Don’t substitute anything or “add your own twist”. You gotta eat every day, so you’ll get a chance to do that soon. - Prep everything in advance. Dice the onions and put them in a bowl. Open up the can of tomatoes. Peel the carrots, chop them, and put them in another bowl. Measure the spices out into a shot glass. Yes, you will have to do a few more dishes. Yes, you will have some dead time while the oil heats up or the onions soften. When you’ve more experience, you can start interleaving things but in the meantime, you’ll avoid burning things while you learn how much time and attention various things take. - Clean as you go. Having a cramped, cluttered counter stresses me out and often leads to mistakes. - Try new recipes out under low-stakes conditions, not when you’re hosting your boss and girlfriend’s parents. 3. Get a decent knife and learn how to use it. You don’t need a $500 Japanese Santoku, but get something decent and keep it sharp. There are standard ways to dice an onion (etc). Do them smoothly first and the speed will come. If you’ve got friends in food service, they might be willing to help. (Exception: tourné is fairly silly) 4. Have fun and don’t take this too seriously. If all else fails, just order pizza.
gwd 7y ago
I've cooked lots of tasty, nutritious food in half an hour, and I rarely spend more than an hour cooking. I can only dream of a world where I could write an app in an hour that would be as enjoyable to use as the food I can cook in an hour is enjoyable to eat!
- notduncansmith 7y ago
  I think game jams probably get closest to this proportion of work:enjoyment in software.
- nradov 7y ago
  Nothing takes half an hour if you count shopping, prep work, and cleanup.
101008 7y ago
I think the hardest part of an app is distribution, sharing, etc (I am not talking about being popular, but signing the app, upload to a marketplace, etc). I think theere could be an analogy about cooking for yourself in your ktichen (developing local, the app works on your phone), or cooking for a lot of people in a enviroment which you dont know (a friend's kitchen, etc). You know that i fyou don't use your utensils, or your favourite pan, or your hoven (you know exactly the times and temperature), it won't be the same.

FearNotDaniel 7y ago

That's pretty much the way life was for me in 1982. Of course, you couldn't make an app 'like this' in the 8-bit days - no networking, no onboard camera, no touch screen - but my Dad & I sat literally at the dinner table and wrote home-cooked apps together. We learned to code together, but he taught me how to make the computer do useful things: as a language teacher he created quiz games that he could take in to use in his high school classroom. I seem to remember designing custom fonts to get the accents right on the French words (did I mention, no Unicode?)