4 ms·
Teaching people a scripting language when the language has been already chosen for them, platform has been prepared, data preformatted etc. might be easy - a no
by oytis 3y ago
Teaching people a scripting language when the language has been already chosen for them, platform has been prepared, data preformatted etc. might be easy - a non-trivial share of my classmates couldn't comprehend a for loop though.
To have real transferrable programming skill - I am not talking about one that will get you a software engineering job, just basic problem solving - you need to know an awful lot about how computers work. Otherwise you'll quickly get overwhelmed by errors you can't comprehend at all stages , not being able to get data in right format, not knowing what tools are suitable for what problems etc.
- bee_rider 3y agoIt might be the case that a better language for this sort of thing would have to be designed. Maybe somebody needs to take another crack at the sort of Visual Basic/Excel type environment. I think someone on this site chimes in occasionally with a sort of “spreadsheet, but each cell runs a line of Python” type program they’ve been working on (although I can’t remember the name unfortunately). That could be a good basis…
- genewitch 3y agovb (6?) may have been copy and paste back in the day but with the advent and continuing "work" on .net VB is just as impenetrable as all the others now.
- eru 3y agoSpreadsheets might already be that better environment. You can solve a load of spreadsheets with some smarts and just spreadsheets (no Visual Basic or so necessary). But that doesn't mean _teaching_ people how to solve problems is any easier.