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Show HN: Learn the Basics of Programming in 20 Minutes

15 points by chkas 5y ago

jmercouris 5y ago
I think it is very nice and simple! Well done! I think if someone went through this little tutorial with a tutor nearby, they would find it very useful! I am having trouble approaching it from the lens of not knowing any programming concepts. I would try experimenting with some family and friends who are unfamiliar with programming. At any rate, this is a wonderful start. Thank you for sharing!
- chkas 5y ago
  Thanks. I am a teacher at a technical high school for computer science. We use this course for "tasters" (about 13 year old students choosing a high school). The students are interested and quickly get along with the environment and the programming language. We use the Web IDE https://easylang.online/ide/ https://easylang.online/ide/, in which this course is also integrated.
moasda 5y ago
Explanation from website: "This simple programming language with built-in graphical functions and an easy to use and offline usable browser IDE is well suited as a teaching and learning language. You can also use it to write graphical applications that you can embed in a web page." Well done, thanks for sharing!
latexr 5y ago
I’ve long thought that processing[1] makes for an interesting learning language because it’s simple to have something show on the screen. It incentives experimentation and quick iteration. It’s Java, which can slow you down as you simultaneously need to understand types and use an IDE, but that can be mitigated by a variant like P5.js[2]. Those do have a small amount of boilerplate which your tutorial foregoes, so thumbs up to that! But I think you should avoid the one character variable names, such as `a` and `i`. When I started, more verbose (and descriptive) variable names helped me keep things in my head, to the point I’d rename the example variables. [1]: https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ [2]: https://p5js.org/ https://p5js.org/
- chkas 5y ago
  Thanks for your kind words. Especially when you have several variables, speaking names are of course useful. But I think that to a loop variable an "i" fits better than a - I don't know what ... For beginners, the one letter can be a hint that this is a variable, and the one with several letters like "len" is a keyword or a function. I once had a variable "sum" in an example program for summing up values. Some students thought this was a command to add.

15 points by chkas 5y ago

I think it is very nice and simple! Well done! I think if someone went through this little tutorial with a tutor nearby, they would find it very useful! I am having trouble approaching it from the lens of not knowing any programming concepts. I would try experimenting with some family and friends who are unfamiliar with programming. At any rate, this is a wonderful start. Thank you for sharing!

chkas 5y ago
Thanks. I am a teacher at a technical high school for computer science. We use this course for "tasters" (about 13 year old students choosing a high school). The students are interested and quickly get along with the environment and the programming language. We use the Web IDE https://easylang.online/ide/ https://easylang.online/ide/, in which this course is also integrated.

moasda 5y ago

Explanation from website: "This simple programming language with built-in graphical functions and an easy to use and offline usable browser IDE is well suited as a teaching and learning language. You can also use it to write graphical applications that you can embed in a web page." Well done, thanks for sharing!

latexr 5y ago

I’ve long thought that processing[1] makes for an interesting learning language because it’s simple to have something show on the screen. It incentives experimentation and quick iteration. It’s Java, which can slow you down as you simultaneously need to understand types and use an IDE, but that can be mitigated by a variant like P5.js[2]. Those do have a small amount of boilerplate which your tutorial foregoes, so thumbs up to that! But I think you should avoid the one character variable names, such as `a` and `i`. When I started, more verbose (and descriptive) variable names helped me keep things in my head, to the point I’d rename the example variables. [1]: https://processing.org/ https://processing.org/ [2]: https://p5js.org/ https://p5js.org/

chkas 5y ago
Thanks for your kind words. Especially when you have several variables, speaking names are of course useful. But I think that to a loop variable an "i" fits better than a - I don't know what ... For beginners, the one letter can be a hint that this is a variable, and the one with several letters like "len" is a keyword or a function. I once had a variable "sum" in an example program for summing up values. Some students thought this was a command to add.