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

#21

Post by mrud » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:03 PM UTC

donniefitz2 wrote: post #20

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.

You have to enable/allow javascript (for the host itself as well as for facebook)

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

#22

Post by physcab » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:04 PM UTC

This is definitely genius. Even for programmers the service could be very valuable in learning new languages. I love my O'Reilly books, but I would throw all of them away in a heartbeat if the content was wrapped up in an interactive console like this.

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

#23

Post by nealsales » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:05 PM UTC

We are going after the same problem with a different solution - http://codeacademy.org

Looks great, looking forward to seeing it develop!

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

#24

Post by kenok » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:05 PM UTC

Lesson 4 "which number" instructions is lacking which name you should use, it should specify the variable name "number" clearly.

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

#25

Post by kenok » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:06 PM UTC

akvlad wrote: post #5

Seems like a good app to get beginners started with learning to code. What stack is this built on? What language are you teaching with, is it javascript?

They are teaching javascript

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

#26

Post by cksk » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:07 PM UTC

reemrevnivek wrote: post #13

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.

Oh, thanks. It's odd, the CLI doesn't even appear here. Had to go to Firefox to see it. Probably some blocking extension getting on the way.

But still there were problems: the CLI did not recognize my keyboard layout. I could not type quotes, so I couldn't even say my name... Too bad, looks cool.

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

#27

Post by mkr-hn » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:17 PM UTC

This has the hidden benefit of being great for review when you forget a concept. I gave up on programming as a trade after almost 15 years of false starts, but I do have to dip into code from time to time.

Having this to review with will be handy.

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

#28

Post by daimyoyo » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:20 PM UTC

Well done. I like it. I especially like the interface. I hope this idea catches on. Continued success. :)

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

#29

Post by rglullis » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:21 PM UTC

Any reason that I simply can not type quotes? Is it dependent on the keyboard layout? I'm using US Alternative International layout, Firefox 7, ubuntu 64-bit.

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

#30

Post by jeffreymcmanus » Thu, Aug 18, 2011, 10:21 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?

You have to get through the first lesson before it tells you that you're learning JavaScript. This isn't terrible considering the audience this seems to be targeting -- the name of the language is an implementation detail to a beginner.