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I loved his writing. I wish we could let _why go though. His creator did. It was a point in time, it wouldn't work the same now, and his final writing alluded t

by jemmyw 4y ago

I loved his writing. I wish we could let _why go though. His creator did. It was a point in time, it wouldn't work the same now, and his final writing alluded to that. Programming has culturally shifted. It's not as fun as it used to be, but it is more accessible and has less mystery about it. That was my time as a young programmer, if you missed out on that then that's too bad, but I missed out on previous and probably even more wild times - both my parents were programmers and I envy their experience. I'm sure there's slices of programming culture now that I have no access to that are again wild and exciting in their own way, just not in web or application programming. So the wheel turns.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
msla 4y ago
Different things are fun, and the same things are fun in different ways. Hardware hacking, for example, is "back" in that it's once again in the limelight for beginner programmers after a period of being too expensive and too limiting to be attractive to a lot of people. It never went away, certainly, but in the late 1990s it looked more like this: https://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/25/arduino-the-basic-stamp-killer/ https://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/25/arduino-the-basic-stamp-k... That's a webpage which compares the BASIC Stamp to an Arduino setup. The upshot? The BASIC Stamp was about $120 all-in to buy the hardware plus a proprietary development environment, whereas a comparable setup for the Arduino is $60 (or less) for the hardware plus a more pleasant development environment, especially if you're coming from Python or ECMAScript and don't like the idea of learning a SHOUTY LINE-BASED 1960s CRUFTFEST that isn't even something cool like assembly language. So in some ways we've circled back around, but it's more like a helix: Yes, kids are Making LEDs Blink Again, but this time it's with a language that isn't a dead-end and it's with hardware they don't have to be so paranoid about blowing up. Experimentation is more fun if you're not afraid of failure. It's the same point in some dimensions, but it's a few miles different in a different dimension. Speaking of dimensions, Web programming has gained a whole new set of dimensions. Say what you will about webdev as a whole, there's few easier ways to show off your work than being able to give your friends a URL so they can just load and go. Shadertoy alone is, from a 1990s perspective, so cool my teenage self would have gone of the deep end with it.
- jemmyw 4y ago
  I was thinking more the cultural side of the fun rather than the tools, the _why(s) who capture the imagination of the next set of people.

by jemmyw 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

msla 4y ago

Different things are fun, and the same things are fun in different ways. Hardware hacking, for example, is "back" in that it's once again in the limelight for beginner programmers after a period of being too expensive and too limiting to be attractive to a lot of people. It never went away, certainly, but in the late 1990s it looked more like this: https://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/25/arduino-the-basic-stamp-killer/ https://todbot.com/blog/2006/09/25/arduino-the-basic-stamp-k... That's a webpage which compares the BASIC Stamp to an Arduino setup. The upshot? The BASIC Stamp was about $120 all-in to buy the hardware plus a proprietary development environment, whereas a comparable setup for the Arduino is $60 (or less) for the hardware plus a more pleasant development environment, especially if you're coming from Python or ECMAScript and don't like the idea of learning a SHOUTY LINE-BASED 1960s CRUFTFEST that isn't even something cool like assembly language. So in some ways we've circled back around, but it's more like a helix: Yes, kids are Making LEDs Blink Again, but this time it's with a language that isn't a dead-end and it's with hardware they don't have to be so paranoid about blowing up. Experimentation is more fun if you're not afraid of failure. It's the same point in some dimensions, but it's a few miles different in a different dimension. Speaking of dimensions, Web programming has gained a whole new set of dimensions. Say what you will about webdev as a whole, there's few easier ways to show off your work than being able to give your friends a URL so they can just load and go. Shadertoy alone is, from a 1990s perspective, so cool my teenage self would have gone of the deep end with it.

jemmyw 4y ago
I was thinking more the cultural side of the fun rather than the tools, the _why(s) who capture the imagination of the next set of people.