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Just want to give you a kudos! First off, I grew up in Malaysia (next door neighbor to Thailand). My first time learning programming from a teacher/lecturer wa

Just want to give you a kudos! First off, I grew up in Malaysia (next door neighbor to Thailand). My first time learning programming from a teacher/lecturer was rather horrid (I wish I had someone like you in my class). I have seen most of the challenges were due to the difficulty in visualizing how the codes transform to the end product. I found Alice to be quite useful to introduce basic (types/conditional) to the first time programmer, but as soon as we transition from Alice to JAVA, many still struggled (dropout rate shot up). If we can have a real time JAVA/C or any complied language, real time IDE. Student may not need to suffer from the pain of transitioning.

Uehreka 13y ago
Thanks a bunch! The "transitioning" problem is a real bummer right now, but I'm optimistic that we'll see a lot of things start to change in the next few years as some of the newer IDE projects become more mature. Regarding IDEs: I agree that we need better tools for Java and C. I think the key to solving this problem is making IDEs that developers can easily extend to meet their own visualizing needs. This is why I'm really excited about the Light Table project: It may not have a ton of features right now, but it gives you the ability to write powerful plugins to cover use cases the IDE developer hadn't thought of.
- buovjaga 13y ago
  At least one person is working on a C/C++ plugin for LT: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/light-table-discussion/IZWv-84NU6g https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/light-tab...
da02 13y ago
Did you stay in Malaysia? Or did you have to move around for economic reasons?
jon2512chua 13y ago
I'm really interested to know more about your experience learning programming for the first time, and the times after as well. You can shoot me an email if that's what you prefer. Context: I'm a Malaysian as well, grew up there but moved to Australia for Year 12 education and then uni. Am working in Perth now as a software developer. My only experience with the Malaysian tech industry is one summer 3 years ago that I spent interning at a Malaysian software firm (horrible experience). Would really love to hear more about the tech scene in Malaysia.

Uehreka 13y ago

Thanks a bunch! The "transitioning" problem is a real bummer right now, but I'm optimistic that we'll see a lot of things start to change in the next few years as some of the newer IDE projects become more mature. Regarding IDEs: I agree that we need better tools for Java and C. I think the key to solving this problem is making IDEs that developers can easily extend to meet their own visualizing needs. This is why I'm really excited about the Light Table project: It may not have a ton of features right now, but it gives you the ability to write powerful plugins to cover use cases the IDE developer hadn't thought of.

buovjaga 13y ago
At least one person is working on a C/C++ plugin for LT: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/light-table-discussion/IZWv-84NU6g https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/light-tab...

da02 13y ago

Did you stay in Malaysia? Or did you have to move around for economic reasons?

jon2512chua 13y ago

I'm really interested to know more about your experience learning programming for the first time, and the times after as well. You can shoot me an email if that's what you prefer. Context: I'm a Malaysian as well, grew up there but moved to Australia for Year 12 education and then uni. Am working in Perth now as a software developer. My only experience with the Malaysian tech industry is one summer 3 years ago that I spent interning at a Malaysian software firm (horrible experience). Would really love to hear more about the tech scene in Malaysia.