@frwntfwtr s/Dykstra/Dijkstra in the survey
Thanks!! Will fix that asap. Cheers
Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
21–30 of 107 posts
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#22I love the idea and would definitely recommend you develop it further. Have you seen the Climate Change Coloring Book? It did reasonably well on Kickstarter (raised $24k, although after printing and shipping that might not leave much) and I just got my copies about a week ago. I ordered 5 to give some as gifts. I'd easily order a few of yours and give one to my dad (former coder) and my kids.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/youaremyjoy/climate-cha...
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#23I'm writing this off-the-cuff so don't read too much into it if you don't want to. I love this trend of using comics to describe technical ideas (which, as far as I can tell, started in earnest with Julia Evans). I think it's a great way to remove some of the scaryness-factor that more serious tomes (like Cormen et al) are associated to. I don't think the niche is nearly reaching oversaturation. I think there is plen…
> I love this trend of using comics to describe technical ideas (which, as far as I can tell, started in earnest with Julia Evans).
Julia deserves a ton of credit, but I think it's also important to remember whytheluckystiff's "Poignant Guide to Ruby" [1]. Going even farther back, Forrest M Mims' electronics books [2], which I remember being sold in Radio Shacks, get much of their fame and familiarity from being hand-written.
[1]: https://poignant.guide/ [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-M...
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#24I love the idea and would definitely recommend you develop it further. Have you seen the Climate Change Coloring Book? It did reasonably well on Kickstarter (raised $24k, although after printing and shipping that might not leave much) and I just got my copies about a week ago. I ordered 5 to give some as gifts. I'd easily order a few of yours and give one to my dad (former coder) and my kids. https://www.kickstarter.…
Thanks for the encouragement. I have seen that book, and ordered one myself as well! I would be thrilled if my book could match that success on Kickstarter. To hear you say you'd give it as a gift is awesome, so I'll get to work =)
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#25I'm writing this off-the-cuff so don't read too much into it if you don't want to. I love this trend of using comics to describe technical ideas (which, as far as I can tell, started in earnest with Julia Evans). I think it's a great way to remove some of the scaryness-factor that more serious tomes (like Cormen et al) are associated to. I don't think the niche is nearly reaching oversaturation. I think there is plen…
To expand on this from the perspective of a student, I primarily study mathematics but will be pursing a double in math and cs, and I actually enjoy very rigorous (what some people may call dry or intimidating) textbooks in both fields because I am generally quite pedantic. However, that being said, I would love a book like this not necessarily as a main source of the actual information I am learning, but rather as a fun visual aid or activity because I like coloring and actually do it rather often. Further, I think active engagement could provide other kinds of benefits. As the parent comment noted, pictures themselves may not teach you the algorithm in its entirety from scratch, but in interview situations, I can see the possibility of getting tripped up on things that you maybe "kind of" know the answer to, and having vivid diagrams or models in mind that you can jump to (e.g. these pictures) may help with things like recall. I actually find things like this to be immensely helpful in every class, from using mnemonics for memorizing Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji to breaking down complex proofs of math theorems into discrete memorable steps to give me an intuition for why and how things work, etc. I think this could both be a great supplemental tool for certain kinds of students as well as a very fun book to color in! I will certainly buy one if this idea comes to fruition.
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#26I don't see myself coloring the pages in; primarily as I wouldn't want to use up any resources. Granted, I'm a 30+ PhD student, so I might not be the targeted market. The only things I have of differing colors are dry erase markers.
For a (much) younger audience, I could see the teacher buying this, but in that breath, they are always looking to not spend a lot (or any) money on supplies, so a $30-40 coloring book for something that they could find a free alternative online isn't worthwhile. But, $1-5 per concept might be worthwhile.
I do, however, love the visualization of your coloring of the page. This could work via writing the book in a visualized "worked example" format, which is how I worked through the data structures course I taught over the summer.
In that light, I can see it being very similar to something like Grokking Algorithms [1], which I did buy because I enjoyed the idea of visualizing the algorithms (for my students and my own edification).
Final note if you went that route is be mindful of colorblind customers and look to include something like a pattern difference as well (maybe angle of coloring the block?).
Overall, I love the idea; my research focus in effective means of conveying concepts to students, so I'd love to stay informed as you work through it and might be tempted to use whatever you tricks you provide as additional exercises when I teach again.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Grokking-Algorithms-illustrated-progr...
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#27I think seeing how you colored it would make a great poster or book -- i.e. as someone unfamiliar with algorithms I would buy the colored in book or set of posters to help me understand them.
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#28I want one, and I belive there's really not an age constraint to this.
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#29I'm writing this off-the-cuff so don't read too much into it if you don't want to. I love this trend of using comics to describe technical ideas (which, as far as I can tell, started in earnest with Julia Evans). I think it's a great way to remove some of the scaryness-factor that more serious tomes (like Cormen et al) are associated to. I don't think the niche is nearly reaching oversaturation. I think there is plen…
Thanks so much for the feedback! I think you're right that something like this would be a better learning tool for someone who is new to the fundamentals, rather than experienced software professionals. And I've heard from a few people now about adding code/pseudocode to match the visuals. I'll have to give that a try in the next iteration!
I prefer the visual representation. I find algorithms very hard to read as code, but I'm fascinated by the concepts.
Re: Show HN: A coloring book of data structures and algorithms
#30How about coloring in the Butterfly diagrams from the FFT or Viterbi algorithms?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_diagram
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US5163017-2...
I'd use neon black light reactive crayons, of course! ;)
http://shop-uv.blacklight.com/ultraviolet/Neon-Crayons
It would be kind of like those Penrose tilings coloring books: