Part of why I ended up being a JS dev was the simplicity of the toolchain for beginners. Can't get much easier than opening the browser console, and you can write an entire program in a single file.
Ask HN: What's the “best” way for a senior to begin learning how to code?
21–24 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the “best” way for a senior to begin learning how to code?
#22Python seems to me an excellent choice. It has good installers for Windows, it has a REPL, IDLE isn't a bad interface. The documentation is excellent. To be sure, it takes a bit of doing to keep Windows 10 from interpreting "python" as "go to the Windows store and offer them a version to download." But that you have to do just once.
If you are helping, you could get her set up, and set up also PIP. A simple web scraping project could help her get started.
Re: Ask HN: What's the “best” way for a senior to begin learning how to code?
#23I'd consider recommending something like having this person build a website for a club or hobby they have with something like Wix or Squarespace. If they're currently fairly non-technical, this is enough of a challenge that gives them something concrete to work towards and eventually show off to their friends. And while it's not necessarily programming exactly to build a website with one of these tools, the thinking and research process is in the same ballpark as you have to figure out how to solve layout problems and use search engines to research how to approach tasks. Once they have a website in place and they want to proceed further, then they have a platform in place to perhaps do something else.
Re: Ask HN: What's the “best” way for a senior to begin learning how to code?
#24[deleted]