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The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

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Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#3
I'm not trying to be snarky, because apparently people are watching, but I'm curious who the audience is?

As a coder I have almost zero interest in watching other people code. I'll read through the end result, but watching somebody type it in? What's the point?

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#4
post #3

I'm not trying to be snarky, because apparently people are watching, but I'm curious who the audience is? As a coder I have almost zero interest in watching other people code. I'll read through the end result, but watching somebody type it in? What's the point?

Just a guess: maybe it's like going to a co-working space. You aren't necessarily watching them work, they're just there in a window keeping you company while you do your work.

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#5
post #3

I'm not trying to be snarky, because apparently people are watching, but I'm curious who the audience is? As a coder I have almost zero interest in watching other people code. I'll read through the end result, but watching somebody type it in? What's the point?

I find that it's a interesting viewpoint when trying to learn to code through self-taught courses/guides.

It's difficult to get a feel for what you're supposed to be doing from reading a book/blogs/whatever. So it's interesting to see how programmers actually work while coding. Do they stop and jump around? Do they consult documentation a lot? How do they comment? Those sorts of intangibles/questions that guides don't really seem to touch on.

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#6
post #5
post #3

I'm not trying to be snarky, because apparently people are watching, but I'm curious who the audience is? As a coder I have almost zero interest in watching other people code. I'll read through the end result, but watching somebody type it in? What's the point?

I find that it's a interesting viewpoint when trying to learn to code through self-taught courses/guides. It's difficult to get a feel for what you're supposed to be doing from reading a book/blogs/whatever. So it's interesting to see how programmers actually work while coding. Do they stop and jump around? Do they consult documentation a lot? How do they comment? Those sorts of intangibles/questions that guides don'…

Part of the appeal is to see how the mind at work.

Another is a dose of inspiration to get myself moving.

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#8
post #3

I'm not trying to be snarky, because apparently people are watching, but I'm curious who the audience is? As a coder I have almost zero interest in watching other people code. I'll read through the end result, but watching somebody type it in? What's the point?

I never understood the appeal until I started watching Handmade Hero(https://handmadehero.org/). I had always wanted to learn about C, but if you don't have an idea of your own, it can be difficult to put what you learn into practice. Casey Muratori did a great job of explaining why he was doing things certain ways and went even deeper to explain the underlying concepts.

I don't see very many live broadcasts on livecoding.tv at the moment, at least none that interest me, but I think I'll be checking back somewhat frequently to see if I find something worthwhile to me.

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#9

I can just see it... Twitch, but for coding. Bring on a tech celebrity for some color, and have a regular commentator and just mock the programmer for their "poor java style".

Presumably twitch works just fine for it. The software doesn't really care whether it's streaming IDE pixels or game pixels.

Re: The Strange Appeal of Watching Coders Code

#10
It should be noted that Livecoding.tv is (YC S15).

Also, the article states there are "legions of coders" flocking to the site but I can't find much evidence of that, if the Twitter account (http://twitter.com/livecodingtv) which tweets all live streams, is anything to go by.

At the least, if I wanted to livestream code, I would do it on YouTube where I can stream 1080p60fps. (I'm also sore about Livecoding.tv's "you must log in to watch videos" shennanigans when they first launched.)

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