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My Twitch Live Coding Setup

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Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#61
post #22

I commend the author on the level of detail documented in the article. It's clear that they have spent much time and effort on making an appealing stream. And yet I still don't get live coding. I have about as much interest in streaming my programming as I have in having a coworker watching me work over my shoulder: zero. I'd love to know what people get out of this. For me the sacrifice to flow is far too great for…

I think it is easy to dismiss until you've had a proper go at it

The experience for me was really engaging, and it gives you a kind of energy to keep going.

If you struggle to code outside of work, I think twitch streaming can give you the power to keep going at it without feeling burned out. Without streaming I find it is super easy to switch off and turn on some youtube video or play a game.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#62
post #2

The original article is really interesting. https://medium.freecodecamp.org/lessons-from-my-first-year-o... I didn't even know livestreaming code was a thing aside from pre-scripted tutorials. I'll have to watch one of the streams, because the hands-on nature is probably good for learning the quirks of various techniques that you don't get from programming books. It's too bad I spend 80% of my development time readin…

80% is thinking and figuring things out, 20% is writing code; always.

THis.

Solve your problem then write code. Problems solved by writing code almost always ends up with crappy / messy code / difficult to maintain code.

The coding should be the easy bit, it's just implementing your solution in a language you know. It's basically just typying.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#63
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

I see the same difficulties with some games, for instance those that do not lend themselves to a simple score board.

When I join a stream of someone playing a strategy game which also has a tactical layer, you are usually equally clueless as to what is going on. Certainly at the strategic layer but also as to what a good outcome of a tactical encounter is.

I'm not sure how technology can fix this. On the other hand, other spectators can usually pretty easily do this in chat.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#64
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

What if the real useful functions live coding is fulfilling have to do less with the spectators, but are more on the creators side?

Communicating what you are doing while you are doing it is a extremly practical way to focus your thoughts. That kind of rubber-duck like process works better if you have somebody concrete you can adress (e.g. a youtube audience, or a good friend of yours), because you won’t get yourself get away with cheap excuses that easily.

If you have to talk about a thing it will immidiately become clear which parts of the code you have internalized and which parts you have a harder time wrapping your head around.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#65
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

I think, displaying your commit history and something like Todoist the entire time would solve most of these problems. Todoist would give the viewer a broad context and future intent and your commit history provides insight into the current status.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#66
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

If you're live-coding you should be constantly talking aloud what you're doing and what you're thinking about. The most popular Twitch streamers are usually good at filling silence.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#68
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

I see the same difficulties with some games, for instance those that do not lend themselves to a simple score board. When I join a stream of someone playing a strategy game which also has a tactical layer, you are usually equally clueless as to what is going on. Certainly at the strategic layer but also as to what a good outcome of a tactical encounter is. I'm not sure how technology can fix this. On the other hand,…

What games are you thinking of? I find RTS really easy to jump into at any point, but that is he only genre I watch really, so I'm curious what issues come up in others.

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#69
post #43

Lots of people discussing the pros and cons of livecoding. I'd like to share some alternate thoughts if possible. I believe that there is a niche interested in watching and/or participating in livecoding and for them they do it because they can be productive and have a good time. So I took livecoding pretty seriously for a while. I recognise that Noopkat is a pro at this and is one of the most consistent live coders…

Similarly to streaming games - there are several subgenres on a "performance vs entertainment" scale.

There are "no commentary" streams, "some commentary" streams, "backseat gaming/coding" streams where the streamer is asking viewers how to solve a problem and then implementing their suggestions, streams discussing metagame/architecture of the code, tutorials for beginners, and streams where the code/game is just an excuse, and the real focus is on interaction with chat and random topics.

If you're an average codemonkey/noob in a game - few people will want to watch your no commentary stream; if you're John Carmack/starcraft god people will watch you silently doing git merges/practicing split micro over and over for hours :)

Re: My Twitch Live Coding Setup

#70
One thing I didn’t see mentioned is, since she is using one monitor only how does she switch between scenes in OBS? Keyboard shortcuts? Also, does she not have a monitor view to let herself see what the stream looks like live?
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