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Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

futurecoder.io

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Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#41

Post by BrandoElFollito »

samwillis wrote: post #2

This looks really good, going through the first couple of tasks it seems well considered. I'm introducing my 8yo daughter to programming at the moment, she is beginning to play around with Scratch. I'm keeping my eye out some something closer to proper coding though. I think this may be a little too far at the moment, but I may try her out on it with me sitting next to her and see how she gets on! Is there any way fo…

My children were vaguely interested in programming but one thing they got of it was that learning functions in Python helped them enormously with formal functions in math.

This is one of the things I regret with how math is taught in France: it stresses way too much the formal part and this is terrifying for children (and teens and everyone except mathematicians).

We have a religious reverence to maths in France. It is better now but used to be simply ridiculous. Unfortunately it still means that some more advanced topics such as derivatives are introduced through definitions (the chapter starts with "be a function f(x) with x in the domain of real numbers, a derivative is a function such that f'(x) = lim h→0 ...").

My son came to me with a WTF? I told him about average velocity transitioning to instant velocity by reducing dt, or about acceleration - and finished by showing that a derivative is a function factory (a function gets in, a completely different, unrelated function goes out). He was then ready for the definition.

Same with physics which is tainted by chemistry, with terminally boring topics introduced first. No wonder that we have less and less STEM students.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#42

Post by dotancohen »

SonicSoul wrote: post #20

looks cool tried the code playground, but seems there is no intellisense? i think that would be very useful to learning

I strongly disagree here. Attention to detail is the defining characteristic of a software developer. Intellisense should only be used by those who already developed that skill.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#43

Post by DwnVoteHoneyPot »

XCabbage wrote: post #14
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a strange interpretation of the word 'free'. If you mean 'gratis', it definitely is free of charge. If you mean 'libre', it is MIT licensed, so you can do whatever you want with it. If you mean some other kind of 'freedom', you should probably clarify...

I think the parent's point is that you can't quite do "whatever you want" with it anywhere in the world, at least until Alex dies, because in some countries authors have inalienable moral rights that cannot be waived by any agreement or license. For instance, if you go to France and distort or mutilate Alex's work in a way that harms his reputation or honour, he will be able to sue you for it, and no possible license…

Ok, so it seems the author of futurecoder.com has struck a nice balance. You can use it monetarily free. It's on github, so if you see something innovative, you can see how it's done. Even copy it to your computer. But can't do harm.

What intentions are left for Breck? Straight up plagiarize into a new website called futurecoders.io? Does he want to humiliate? Mutilate? I don't know what Breck's point is.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#44

Post by alexmojaki »

e-clinton wrote: post #36

This is great. Would love to see this in Spanish. I’m a fluent speaker but have never talked about code in Spanish, however I’d be up to the challenge of helping translate

It's available in Spanish: https://es-latam.futurecoder.io/

It was actually the first translation to be finished 100%, although now it's fallen behind to 91% as new English text was added. The reason it's not listed on the site alongside French and Tamil is that after it was finished, it was never proofread, so it never became officially ready :(

> I’d be up to the challenge of helping translate

Yes please!!!

Information about translating is here: https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder/wiki/How-to-write-...

The task to finish and proofread the Spanish translation is recorded here: https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder/issues/371

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#45

Post by dotancohen »

e-clinton wrote: post #36

This is great. Would love to see this in Spanish. I’m a fluent speaker but have never talked about code in Spanish, however I’d be up to the challenge of helping translate

There is a Spanish translation, though it is a bit behind the English version.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#46

Post by alexmojaki »

dang wrote: post #39

Related: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free online interactive Python course - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28737779 - Oct 2021 (24 comments)

Updates since then:

- A new 'assistant' UI that prevents users from getting stuck on instructions they found unclear, which was the most common complaint.

- Can now be translated to other languages.

- Available in 3 other languages.

- Can now be used in Safari.

- Can now be used offline.

- Can now be used in China.

- A new course chapter about dictionaries.

- A 'Stop' button to interrupt running code.

- Output is shown in the console as it's produced.

- time.sleep() works correctly.

- Ctrl+Enter keyboard shortcut to run code.

- Lots of small improvements and bug fixes.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#47

Post by alexmojaki »

SonicSoul wrote: post #20

looks cool tried the code playground, but seems there is no intellisense? i think that would be very useful to learning

Others have suggested autocomplete before. I opened https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder/issues/120 in response as a place to talk about it. But in general my opinion is that it would probably actually be harmful to learning for beginners, and I'd need to see evidence to convince me otherwise.

Here's my favorite explanation why: https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/a/634

Here's another similar discussion: https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/5777/python-...

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#49

Post by alexmojaki »

sabujp wrote: post #29

I would love to see something like this but for c++. I'm going to teach my kids programming but I want to go in this order c++ -> java, javascript/typescript, python -> rust, go -> perl, bash

I very strongly believe that it's better to start with an easy language. Sure it's easier to learn Python after C++ than it is to learn C++ after Python, but a harder language will most likely frustrate and discourage beginners. I think it's a plausible risk that they might give up on programming and never want to try again.

Re: Show HN: Futurecoder – A free interactive Python course for coding beginners

#50

Post by alexmojaki »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #41
samwillis wrote: post #2

This looks really good, going through the first couple of tasks it seems well considered. I'm introducing my 8yo daughter to programming at the moment, she is beginning to play around with Scratch. I'm keeping my eye out some something closer to proper coding though. I think this may be a little too far at the moment, but I may try her out on it with me sitting next to her and see how she gets on! Is there any way fo…

My children were vaguely interested in programming but one thing they got of it was that learning functions in Python helped them enormously with formal functions in math. This is one of the things I regret with how math is taught in France: it stresses way too much the formal part and this is terrifying for children (and teens and everyone except mathematicians). We have a religious reverence to maths in France. It…

futurecoder was actually translated to French by three teachers working for the French Ministry of Education to use when teaching the maths/programming subject 'NSI'.

I love maths myself but I've made a strong effort to avoid maths in examples/exercises so that the course is approachable to students who don't like maths. The first page is a special exception as it lets users immediately try something familiar (like 1+2) without needing to introduce strings or any other new concepts.

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