4 ms·

I've actually been collecting the Usbourne books for the past couple years! For my research on providing typing exercises to CS students, I like to use the book

I've actually been collecting the Usbourne books for the past couple years! For my research on providing typing exercises to CS students, I like to use the books as a physical prop to point out how "this was how they used to do it" [1]. This is actually one of the issues in modern CS learning resources - it's too easy for novices to simply copy and paste the code, so they never really refine the mistakes made from simple syntax errors. By forcing students to retype code, you are making them more comfortable with the keyboard and they don't have to worry about juggling technical literacy with problem-solving skills. [1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338659877_Typing_Exercises_as_Interactive_Worked_Examples_for_Deliberate_Practice_in_CS_Courses https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338659877_Typing_Ex...

ococococ 7y ago
I agree with you completely. I am self taught. I started as a child from books like this and also the help files in qbasic. Ever since those days any time I'm learning a new framework or language I turn auto complete off. If I find good code snippets, I retype them and usually refactor them completely. Although it takes me a bit longer to ramp up, i feel this has lead to me being a very good engineer and has given me a deeper understanding of many techniques and has helped me commit many things to memory. At this point adapting to new languages and being productive in them only takes me a few months.
- tsumnia 7y ago
  Yup, I feel the same way with unpacking a tar file. Rather than just copy/paste the answer I see on SO, I explicitly retype it to that I learn the syntax.
musicale 7y ago
> NB these programs don't work on modern computers. BBC BASIC runs on most modern computers, notably the Raspberry Pi running RISC OS (which includes BBC BASIC) or Linux/BSD/Windows running Brandy BASIC and derivatives or Linux/Windows/macOS/Android running the free BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0: http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcsdl/ http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcsdl/ or in a web browser: https://bbc.godbolt.org https://bbc.godbolt.org
- xenomachina 7y ago
  And also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbcmicrobot https://twitter.com/bbcmicrobot

ococococ 7y ago

I agree with you completely. I am self taught. I started as a child from books like this and also the help files in qbasic. Ever since those days any time I'm learning a new framework or language I turn auto complete off. If I find good code snippets, I retype them and usually refactor them completely. Although it takes me a bit longer to ramp up, i feel this has lead to me being a very good engineer and has given me a deeper understanding of many techniques and has helped me commit many things to memory. At this point adapting to new languages and being productive in them only takes me a few months.

tsumnia 7y ago
Yup, I feel the same way with unpacking a tar file. Rather than just copy/paste the answer I see on SO, I explicitly retype it to that I learn the syntax.

musicale 7y ago

> NB these programs don't work on modern computers. BBC BASIC runs on most modern computers, notably the Raspberry Pi running RISC OS (which includes BBC BASIC) or Linux/BSD/Windows running Brandy BASIC and derivatives or Linux/Windows/macOS/Android running the free BBC BASIC for SDL 2.0: http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcsdl/ http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcsdl/ or in a web browser: https://bbc.godbolt.org https://bbc.godbolt.org

xenomachina 7y ago
And also on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbcmicrobot https://twitter.com/bbcmicrobot