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I was going to say "I'd skip all the traditional web-dev stuff and just make a little Go application that serves a web endpoint with something neat in it"... an

by floren 6y ago

I was going to say "I'd skip all the traditional web-dev stuff and just make a little Go application that serves a web endpoint with something neat in it"... and then I stopped myself and thought about how much boiler-plate and explanations and step-by-step you'd need just to get kids compiling Hello, World... Teaching kids is hard. Edit: i appreciate Go because there's not as much boilerplate or setup required as with some languages (unpack the tarball, set $PATH, and I'm off to the races) but even those steps mean we're talking about shells and directory trees.

nicbou 6y ago
You could run a bit of JavaScript right off your filesystem. It would require nothing but a browser and a text editor. Otherwise, it's really easy to get lost in boilerplate before you even know what the payoff is.
- type0 6y ago
  > You could run a bit of JavaScript right off your filesystem. It would require nothing but a browser and a text editor. It's good to show what's possible but it isn't fun and will bore them to death fast because it's very limiting for beginners.
  - nicbou 6y ago
    I suppose it depends on what sparked their curiosity in the first place. Every professional has an origin story, something that made them want to slog through years of practice to get to where they are. I can think of many ways to spark people's interest in cooking or music, but programming seems a bit harder to me. I never thought about why I love it, let alone why others should. How would you do that?
    - type0 6y ago
      > I can think of many ways to spark people's interest in cooking or music Combining programming with music is a cool idea - https://sonic-pi.net/ https://sonic-pi.net/
type0 6y ago
> I was going to say "I'd skip all the traditional web-dev stuff... Go is simple but not really beginner friendly. In my opinion teaching novices should start with Ruby (not Python or Javascript that's so often is the case). Show them how to do simple scripts, later build some games together. Web-dev stuff like React, Webpack, Node etc should be out of the question, it would be a huge turn off for kids; heck it is that even for adults.

by floren 6y ago

nicbou 6y ago

You could run a bit of JavaScript right off your filesystem. It would require nothing but a browser and a text editor. Otherwise, it's really easy to get lost in boilerplate before you even know what the payoff is.

type0 6y ago
> You could run a bit of JavaScript right off your filesystem. It would require nothing but a browser and a text editor. It's good to show what's possible but it isn't fun and will bore them to death fast because it's very limiting for beginners.
- nicbou 6y ago
  I suppose it depends on what sparked their curiosity in the first place. Every professional has an origin story, something that made them want to slog through years of practice to get to where they are. I can think of many ways to spark people's interest in cooking or music, but programming seems a bit harder to me. I never thought about why I love it, let alone why others should. How would you do that?
  - type0 6y ago
    > I can think of many ways to spark people's interest in cooking or music Combining programming with music is a cool idea - https://sonic-pi.net/ https://sonic-pi.net/

type0 6y ago

> I was going to say "I'd skip all the traditional web-dev stuff... Go is simple but not really beginner friendly. In my opinion teaching novices should start with Ruby (not Python or Javascript that's so often is the case). Show them how to do simple scripts, later build some games together. Web-dev stuff like React, Webpack, Node etc should be out of the question, it would be a huge turn off for kids; heck it is that even for adults.