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I keep a git repository[1] of my son's (1,5 years old) keyboard hammering. He "types" until he accidentally leaves insert mode in Vim or leaves the computer, an

by jacobr 15y ago

I keep a git repository[1] of my son's (1,5 years old) keyboard hammering. He "types" until he accidentally leaves insert mode in Vim or leaves the computer, and then I commit it. In 5-10 years time I hope to be able to do some real-time visualization with milestones like "first real word", "first use of complicated word", etc. If he's interested I might track his first code there as well. 1: https://github.com/jacobrask/Ivar https://github.com/jacobrask/Ivar

evincarofautumn 15y ago
Out of curiosity, why did you choose to give a kid a modal editor?
- mahmud 15y ago
  it's a sensible choice to start him with Vi and leave Emacs for when he is a man~
- jacobr 15y ago
  I didn't really choose, I was busy coding one day and his mom had to do something quick, so I had him in my lap. He wanted to type like I did, so I just opened a split in Vim and let him type a few characters, he could barely press down a key anyway. When he later wanted to go to the computer even when I wasn't sitting there, I just continued in Vim. I'll probably switch to something else now that's he's actually starting to understand the connection between the monitor and the keyboard better. Previously he mostly liked right-clicking with the mouse as it gave a big box on the screen..
duaneb 15y ago
I'd be afraid that letting a kid hammer away with a modal editor might accidentally reformat the hard drive or something.... But seriously, wouldn't you get better results with a plain, non-modal editor? Any interesting results so far? Any interest in publishing his ``commits''?
- jacobr 15y ago
  It's on GitHub, see link above. The biggest milestone so far was probably when he realized that the cursor moving on the screen was connected to him doing stuff with the keyboard. It was pretty fascinating to see, him looking at the keyboard, at the monitor, at the keyboard, then "touch typing" while looking at the monitor :)
donniezazen 15y ago
Very cool good luck.

by jacobr 15y ago

evincarofautumn 15y ago

Out of curiosity, why did you choose to give a kid a modal editor?

mahmud 15y ago
it's a sensible choice to start him with Vi and leave Emacs for when he is a man~
jacobr 15y ago
I didn't really choose, I was busy coding one day and his mom had to do something quick, so I had him in my lap. He wanted to type like I did, so I just opened a split in Vim and let him type a few characters, he could barely press down a key anyway. When he later wanted to go to the computer even when I wasn't sitting there, I just continued in Vim. I'll probably switch to something else now that's he's actually starting to understand the connection between the monitor and the keyboard better. Previously he mostly liked right-clicking with the mouse as it gave a big box on the screen..

duaneb 15y ago

I'd be afraid that letting a kid hammer away with a modal editor might accidentally reformat the hard drive or something.... But seriously, wouldn't you get better results with a plain, non-modal editor? Any interesting results so far? Any interest in publishing his ``commits''?

jacobr 15y ago
It's on GitHub, see link above. The biggest milestone so far was probably when he realized that the cursor moving on the screen was connected to him doing stuff with the keyboard. It was pretty fascinating to see, him looking at the keyboard, at the monitor, at the keyboard, then "touch typing" while looking at the monitor :)

donniezazen 15y ago

Very cool good luck.