Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#11

Post by reemrevnivek » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:48 PM UTC

OmarIsmail wrote: post #4

I actually had a similar idea to this and you guys have executed wonderfully on it! Starting with Javascript is definitely the way to go, as I strongly believe it's the language of the future (and right now actually). One request for courses would be intermediate/advanced javascript for people that already know how to program. Also I think you should reach out to library developers (backbone, underscore, jquery, etc)…

Agreed. Looks like you can submit courses from http://www.codecademy.com/programming-intro: There's a mailto link that points to contact at codecademy.com with the body "Hello, I'd like a create a lesson on ...". (Note that the OP asks here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2901163 that responses from this submission be directed to 'HN at codecademy.com')

@zds: Any plans to make this an online course submission, or do you want to filter everything through emails?

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#12

Post by olivercameron » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:49 PM UTC

You guys are onto something here, my Wife is trying to learn to code and finds books really tough to get instant feedback from. Also, that little intro on the front page getting people to code without them knowing is genius!

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#13

Post by reemrevnivek » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:52 PM UTC

cksk wrote: post #8

When I click on "Get Started", nothing happens. It made me think it was just a stub site. Is it just me? Chrome on OS X 10.6.

In Chromium, an alert bar stating "Follow the directions in the console to begin" pops up, and the console is highlighted while everything else is grayed out.

It's a CLI-based interface, not a click-based interface, which is a welcome change and a good thing for beginning programmers to learn.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#14

Post by cadr » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

I find it kind of odd that it doesn't actually say what language I am learning. (I mean, yes, I can tell, but if I were learning I wouldn't.)

Was that on purpose?

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#15

Post by cwilson » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

cadr wrote: post #14

I find it kind of odd that it doesn't actually say what language I am learning. (I mean, yes, I can tell, but if I were learning I wouldn't.) Was that on purpose?

The lesson told me I was learning Javascript?

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#16

Post by mshafrir » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:55 PM UTC

Looks great guys. It might be useful for new developers to be able to reset the code in the textarea to its original state if they mess up or get lost (I was looking at http://www.codecademy.com/programming-intro/7 when this thought came up)

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#17

Post by brackin » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

I definitely think the hackers of the HN Community should help create lessons for the site, it'd be really beneficial for the non technical folk. I think if more lessons were added it'd be even more powerful.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#18

Post by wturner » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:57 PM UTC

As an "average" non-programmer I love this. I'm teaching myself to code and this looks like a framework for learning that's perfect. I'll send feedback as I go through the lessons

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#19

Post by maxniederhofer » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:58 PM UTC

It's very addictive. One of the few use cases where I actually enjoyed the game-like features.

Re: Show HN: Codecademy.com, the easiest way to learn to code

#20

Post by donniefitz2 » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 9:58 PM UTC

Not sure what's wrong with the site, but the top left is just one big empty area of white space and the get started button does nothing at all. I've tried both FF 6.0 and Chrome.