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Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

arstechnica.com

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Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#41

Post by ontouchstart »

madcow2011 wrote: post #4

I've been looking for something similar to this for my 12-year old son. Are there any other resources you guys can recommend to help teach coding? (that aren't Apple-product dependent?)

Being an open source language that also runs on proprietary platforms, Swift can teach people programming from many different points of view.

1. Getting familiar with the platform and toolchains. We all know that these toolchains will be obsolete when your kid grows up. But we have to start from somewhere.

2. What matters is the creative exploration via programming. Whether your kid ends up becoming a Swift (or an iOS) developer is a different matter.

3. One of the advantages of Swift playground on iPad is to liberate the swift learning experience from XCode, which requires you to buy an Apple computer. Another one is being touch native, the design and programming experience will be different from the traditional keyboard and mouse.

4. On the other end, with open source swift on Linux, kids also have opportunities to learn lower level non-graphic programming all the way down to llvm (http://llvm.org/) on portable Linux platforms such as Docker and the cloud. Again, whether your kid ends up being a "server programmer" is also a different matter.

Here is an example of a non-graphic interactive "playground" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read%E2%80%93eval%E2%80%93prin...) for the same language. https://asciinema.org/a/79773

Although it won't deliver the same kind of user experience as Apple product, but there is no reason to believe that kids can only learn from traditional GUI. And to be honest, nobody knows what the future user and programming interface would be.

Kids will find out themselves.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#42

Post by shams93 »

madcow2011 wrote: post #4

I've been looking for something similar to this for my 12-year old son. Are there any other resources you guys can recommend to help teach coding? (that aren't Apple-product dependent?)

The raspberry pi3 is a great way to learn raspbian comes with Scratch built in.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#43

Post by mikestew »

Zyst wrote: post #40
atom-morgan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they want to use existing hardware?

Why is parent getting down voted, not wanting to spend a couple hundred bucks, specially outside of the US where a couple hundred bucks can be what you make in a month, is a perfectly valid reason.

Well, I obviously didn't down vote it. But if that were a consideration it should have been mentioned, along with what that existing hardware is. Hence my question, because as-worded the motivation comes across as just an allergy to Apple logos.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#44

Post by nl »

atom-morgan wrote: post #32
emmiechang wrote: post #16

We play tested this with 10 year olds at the San Francisco Public Library recently and the kids LOVED it -- keep in mind, these were not middle or upper middle class privileged kids, but lower income at risk ones. The challenge is that after about 45 min of "play" time, they want to 'build' something and create--and Playgrounds doesn't provide the environment to do that. Then, they get bored and feel encumbered. Afte…

Do you have a link to Scratch? I'm having trouble finding it.

https://scratch.mit.edu/

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#45

Post by j_s »

madcow2011 wrote: post #4

I've been looking for something similar to this for my 12-year old son. Are there any other resources you guys can recommend to help teach coding? (that aren't Apple-product dependent?)

Elementary School Coding & Robotics Resources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r1b2CM1uTdST47IbWa7zlZYm...

referenced here: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=810282

Unfortunately the bigger the list, the less likely profitable info has been highlighted. I also didn't note where I found this info; bummer.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#46

Post by greggman »

Swift Playgrounds looks great but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the frustration that Apple is shipping something on iPad that other developers have been banned from making since iPad shipped

From the Swift Playground website:

> Send your code to a friend’s iPad using Mail, Messages, or AirDrop

No other apps are allowed to do this because of the iOS Terms of Service restrictions

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#47

Post by cs2818 »

I must admit I initially thought the idea of this app was a bit silly, but after giving it a try yesterday I believe it is some of the best software developed by Apple in recent years.

I ended up working through about half of the first Learn to Code module and had a great time even as an experienced programmer. Hopefully those new to coding will also find it to be an enjoyable experience.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#48

Post by untog »

mikestew wrote: post #43
Zyst wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is parent getting down voted, not wanting to spend a couple hundred bucks, specially outside of the US where a couple hundred bucks can be what you make in a month, is a perfectly valid reason.

Well, I obviously didn't down vote it. But if that were a consideration it should have been mentioned, along with what that existing hardware is. Hence my question, because as-worded the motivation comes across as just an allergy to Apple logos.

No it doesn't. It simply asks for something that will work on a platform other than those owned by Apple. It's an entirely reasonable request, and I'm baffled that people on a web site called "Hacker News" are suggesting otherwise.

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#49

Post by na85 »

greggman wrote: post #46

Swift Playgrounds looks great but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the frustration that Apple is shipping something on iPad that other developers have been banned from making since iPad shipped From the Swift Playground website: > Send your code to a friend’s iPad using Mail, Messages, or AirDrop No other apps are allowed to do this because of the iOS Terms of Service restrictions

By now, people are used to being dicked around by the masters of whatever walled garden they choose to play in.

It's not like this sort of behaviour is new to Apple (or any of their competitors) .

Re: Learning to code as a 30-year-old kid with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds

#50

Post by mark212 »

spraak wrote: post #38
melling wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...or you could learn Swift and ship real apps. You'll have something to show your friends and family. You'll go much farther once you ship real software that does something that's interesting to you.

Um, are you trying to say that you can't make some 'real' with Racket? That you can't do something interesting with Racket? Because that's really not true, and you sound really snobby.

Snobby or not, there's something really great about being able to make an app that has an icon on your phone. Easy to show friends, and it feels somewhat tangible. And practical experience.

As a total noob programmer myself, stuff that exists only on the command line is a bit of a let down.

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