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There's these things called books, think of them like a paper backup of a webpage. So anyways these books can have all sorts of information in them. I have hea

There's these things called books, think of them like a paper backup of a webpage. So anyways these books can have all sorts of information in them. I have heard about, but not seen, books about computers and programming. Apparently some were entire reference manuals for various programming languages! Can you imagine? These books don't even need to be charged to use them! I know it sounds crazy but they're real things. I once met an old guy, you know over 25, and he told me that before YouTube and StackExchange that people learned to program entirely by using books and typing at their computers.

MiroF 6y ago
> There's these things called books, think of them like a paper backup of a webpage. So anyways these books can have all sorts of information in them. Read: Only children who can afford a computer + internet outside of school can use the (obviously superior for beginners) tools available online, everyone else relegated to books.
- giantrobot 6y ago
  It's not a given (or obvious) that online tools are superior to books for learning to program. Even if that was objectively true it's trivial for a school to make online resources available to students without external Internet access. The point the GP was making is schools can provide technology to students but don't have to let them goof off on the Internet. Students definitely don't need Internet access to learn to program. Generations of programmers learned to program quite well without YouTube tutorials.
sokoloff 6y ago
I look forward to my kids reading the npm, GitHub, and stackoverflow books. Like it or not, learning coding and actually coding has changed (almost entirely for the better) since the days when I typed in page after page of code from books or magazines.
phobosanomaly 6y ago
I like physical books as well. I would concede however that although generations of people learned to program using books, they were small generations. The increased accessibility that came with the internet has drastically increased the number of people able to acquire those skills. Accessibility is probably the priority in a K-12 setting where you're accommodating kids with a wide range of skills and interests in a single class, not just the kids intrinsically interested enough to actually read the book after school.

MiroF 6y ago

> There's these things called books, think of them like a paper backup of a webpage. So anyways these books can have all sorts of information in them. Read: Only children who can afford a computer + internet outside of school can use the (obviously superior for beginners) tools available online, everyone else relegated to books.

giantrobot 6y ago
It's not a given (or obvious) that online tools are superior to books for learning to program. Even if that was objectively true it's trivial for a school to make online resources available to students without external Internet access. The point the GP was making is schools can provide technology to students but don't have to let them goof off on the Internet. Students definitely don't need Internet access to learn to program. Generations of programmers learned to program quite well without YouTube tutorials.

sokoloff 6y ago

I look forward to my kids reading the npm, GitHub, and stackoverflow books. Like it or not, learning coding and actually coding has changed (almost entirely for the better) since the days when I typed in page after page of code from books or magazines.

phobosanomaly 6y ago

I like physical books as well. I would concede however that although generations of people learned to program using books, they were small generations. The increased accessibility that came with the internet has drastically increased the number of people able to acquire those skills. Accessibility is probably the priority in a K-12 setting where you're accommodating kids with a wide range of skills and interests in a single class, not just the kids intrinsically interested enough to actually read the book after school.