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Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

codecademy.com

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Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#53

Post by zds »

revorad wrote: post #41

Very nice. Really well made. Love the fact that I could just dive in and engage with the product from the homepage without having to dance through the usual annoying sign up routine. One thing I'd change is this error message which is not really an error message : "ERROR: Sorry, that's not correct. Please try again." It appears every time I try some command which is not exactly the next step defined in the tutorial.…

thanks!

we're opening it up to free programming asap and we're going to stop the fake errors thing.

this is exactly what we're planning on doing - let me know if you'd be interested in creating a lesson or if you have other feedback - zach (at) codecademy (dot) com.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#55

Post by pnathan »

jeffreymcmanus wrote: post #30
cadr wrote: post #14

I find it kind of odd that it doesn't actually say what language I am learning. (I mean, yes, I can tell, but if I were learning I wouldn't.) Was that on purpose?

You have to get through the first lesson before it tells you that you're learning JavaScript. This isn't terrible considering the audience this seems to be targeting -- the name of the language is an implementation detail to a beginner.

No, it is absolutely not an implementation detail.

When I was setting out to learn programming, I bought every book I could lay my grubby teenaged hands on about the language. Knowing the name of the programming language allows you to ask questions about it of other people and the Internet.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#56

Post by zds »

reemrevnivek wrote: post #11
OmarIsmail wrote: post #4

I actually had a similar idea to this and you guys have executed wonderfully on it! Starting with Javascript is definitely the way to go, as I strongly believe it's the language of the future (and right now actually). One request for courses would be intermediate/advanced javascript for people that already know how to program. Also I think you should reach out to library developers (backbone, underscore, jquery, etc)…

Agreed. Looks like you can submit courses from http://www.codecademy.com/programming-intro : There's a mailto link that points to contact at codecademy.com with the body "Hello, I'd like a create a lesson on ...". (Note that the OP asks here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2901163 that responses from this submission be directed to 'HN at codecademy.com') @zds: Any plans to make this an online course submission,…

yep, expect online course submission in the next couple of days (with some other cool stuff sprinkled in). we're taking emails now so that people who want to get started right now can do so (we haven't built the form but we'll show you how to get started). feel free to shoot us an email if you want to get started before we have it built out.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#58

Post by zds »

EAMiller wrote: post #54

Chrome 13 / OSX 10.6.8 - I can navigate the courses pages, but don't see the CLI interface (just the section list, and the Disqus discussion). Also it's not redirecting to any shebang URLs. Works fine in Firefox. (nice work btw)

bug noted - we're on it! thanks.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#59

Post by Hostile »

This reminds me of (what was previously _why's) "try ruby!" at http://tryruby.org/

I always loved that, and I think this has a lot of potential. Tomorrow being Whyday, I think I'll send this to some people to try and spread the joy of programming.

I do think that the parentheses and semicolon stuff might appear sort of abruptly for the completely non-technical, but it's hard for me to judge, really.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#60

Post by faramarz »

jhen095 wrote: post #38
reemrevnivek wrote: post #6

Beautiful! But if I keep trying to explore after the "You've completed this lesson! Start the next one." message, I get ERROR: Cannot read property '_id' of undefined In my opinion, exploration in this context is extremely important. The guided tours are nice, but I'm confident that you don't want to limit people's use of the site Also, "You're doing great! To continue, you'll need to register or sign in. Otherwise a…

Agreed with all of the above points. Beautiful and easy to use. The "You're doing great! To continue, you'll need to register or sign in. Otherwise all that awesome progress you've made will be lost. Sign In\Register (it's free)" dialog is most definitely a road block as there were no links available to go back to the home page. Only two options were sign in or register. So yeah, there should be a cancel, or return t…

Nope, not a road block for me. By the time you get to that point, the user has already got a taste of the fruit; it's decision time. I registered.

I love this. Keep doing what you're doing, expand the library in a few months and contact foundations like Rockefeller for financial support if you need it.

Kudos! I'm excited.

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