61–70 of 79 posts
As a software guy who plays more with hardware, I really just want a phone with a gpio output, small form factor and low power consumption enough that it could run off solar power.
Why can't we have that?
People really upvote anything that contains "react" these days...
I didn't vote on your comment, but it looks like it contains "react" and got downvoted, so stating that "anything" would get upvoted obviously wasn't true.
However, if you hadn't had written it, the claim could have still been true.
So, your writing about some fact... might have changed it.
Is there a name for that kind of occurence?
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Words in titles are conventionally capitalized (with the exception of "the", "a" and similar).
I've often wondered: Is it an English thing or an American thing? Is it recent or has it always been the rule? Does it depend on the 'class' of the publication? To me it is unreadable, a real PITA to process such capitalised titles. Especially with English language, for it has very short words, hence capitals can harm the reading rhythm every 4 or 5 characters; and the same word can be a noun, an adjective or a verb…
None of the English newspapers I checked does it.
In the USA, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, do it; but USA Today, LA Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Denver Post, Chicago Tribune don't. Washington Post apparently does or did both.
None of the Australian newspapers I checked does it (and at first sight, most of them seem to fall in the following category...).
Tabloids either use one foot high full capital titles, or don't capitalise.
Not any French, Spanish, German use this capitalisation style either. Of course Germans do capitalise nouns, as they do in regular text.
So, it seems to be an American-only thing, and not even widespread there (for newspaper titles).
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I think 11 is already too late for those blocks. I did some lessons with Blockly [0] in my son's class last years (kids of 6 and 7), and that worked fine for the oldest/smartest kids, though it was still a bit too hard for some. I plan to do it again this year (ages 7-9) to see how that goes. But after that, I think it's time for some Ruby or Python. I did Basic at that age. [0] https://blockly-games.appspot.com/
You know, what way is there today to get the simple experience of a C64 or a ZX spectrum? Several things there: - Instant on with a high level language interpreter - Simple architecture/ISA one can grow into - Maybe a monitor/assembler available from the interpreter - Powerful graphics, with simple things possible from the language, and full power available from machine code This would be perfect for around 8-10 year…
If we're content with giving them some "best of 80s"-ideas, I think racket and/or Pharo Smalltalk is about as good as we can make it.
I'm guilty of stooping down to less powerful and futuristic systems myself - I find python to a very good mix of intuitive / simple and "real world" useful.
Other than that, I guess playing with forth in a boot loader is pretty good if what one really wants is "close to hardware":
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> This is so unintuitive! Ideas? Are they strong readers? Code as a narrative of what happens might be easier to grok for them than blocks which can have a spatial component to how they proved.
No, they are not even native English speakers :) They started pointing and clicking on computers before they learned to read anyway: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/19500788060/my-te... That was several years ago, and the intervening years they unlearned everything by focusing on the ipad youtube :(
Beyond the spreadsheet - I don't think we have any successful "graphical" programming systems. And spreadsheets are more of a "4gl" than graphical. Maybe add Hypercard. And Smalltalk (with the object browser etc).
But the only real use of "graphical/iconographic" programming is for those that can't read and write. So, 6 years and down? That is, until someone makes a graphical system people will want to use at all ages and level of proficiency.
Ok, I guess I can think of a few others: 3d studio max could be seen as a form of graphical programming. As could premier/final cut and flash. And rich manipulation of rich media to "render" new rich media (interactive or not). But notice that with the partial exception of flash we don't call this "graphical programming".
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=alligator+clip...
(OK, maybe it's a regional thing.)
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I think 11 is already too late for those blocks. I did some lessons with Blockly [0] in my son's class last years (kids of 6 and 7), and that worked fine for the oldest/smartest kids, though it was still a bit too hard for some. I plan to do it again this year (ages 7-9) to see how that goes. But after that, I think it's time for some Ruby or Python. I did Basic at that age. [0] https://blockly-games.appspot.com/
You know, what way is there today to get the simple experience of a C64 or a ZX spectrum? Several things there: - Instant on with a high level language interpreter - Simple architecture/ISA one can grow into - Maybe a monitor/assembler available from the interpreter - Powerful graphics, with simple things possible from the language, and full power available from machine code This would be perfect for around 8-10 year…
It was texas instruments flavor of basic. Simple enough to get started, automating my math homework :) Just move right to get to the edit 'tab', and select the program you want to edit. Right once more to create a new one.
By the way, if any of you reading this happened to be the manager who decided to spend a few extra cents including explanations for if/then, for loops, variables, etc in the back of the manual, THANKS! You are probably the reason I have the career that i do today. Once I realized that an evening spent programming meant no math homework for a few weeks, I was hooked!
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What is also important is the number of kids you are trying to teach at a time. Kids > 8 then blocks mean that everybody is somewhat productive through trial and error, even if some are held back by the interface. Try 30 young kids with a standard text based language and you end up achieving very little in a single class.
Especially if you have someone who is more hands on getting stuck on a cryptic interpreter error. We are all likely familiar with the non-informative "syntax error".
"non-informative "syntax error"" We as an industry really need to improve error messages. I got a new chip and pin card the other day, and forgot you had to go to an atm to activate it first. Error 2392729???? How about, "please activate at an atm"?
Maybe we need an "Informative Error Messages Day" every year, where we are all forbidden from working on anything except improving our products error message.
People really upvote anything that contains "react" these days...
Your comment reminds me of quantum theory (you know, the part about observing...) I didn't vote on your comment, but it looks like it contains "react" and got downvoted, so stating that "anything" would get upvoted obviously wasn't true. However, if you hadn't had written it, the claim could have still been true. So, your writing about some fact... might have changed it. Is there a name for that kind of occurence?
I hate to rat-hole on the tiniest nit, but the term "Alligator Clip" overtook "Crocodile Clip" in about 1938... https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=alligator+clip... (OK, maybe it's a regional thing.)
I am British and would say Crocodile Clip, not that I care much either way.