Watch other people code • Hacker News Board

Re: Watch other people code

#21

Post by zupa » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:27 PM UTC

I think it is a good idea, but..

(1) do you really want to do it live? Why not do it the youtube way? Store the videos, rate them, comment with videos, etc.

(2) you could instead of making true videos split it into 2 parts. Making a video, and attach a text area to it so users can copy/paste your code. One could see the changes live.

(3) I guess this works hard if you want to present an SDK. Maybe you could turn the editable fields into text areas? At least the main one. Kind of a layer over the video.

Re: Watch other people code

#22

Post by danl » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:28 PM UTC

revorad wrote: post #18

spodek wrote: post #14

I bet I have a better idea for you. Set up the same thing for watching people design. I don't design much, but I love and learn incredible amounts from watching people design. Could be any format -- web, print, architectural, etc. Design is inherently more visual, so watching others communicates more and is probably more fun and engaging. Also I suspect more people design than code so you probably get a bigger audien…

This is a brilliant suggestion. I've seen countless posts here on "how should I learn design?". When I think about learning to design, I want to learn the process of a good designer, not just theory or tricks. For example, I learnt a lot more design from this post and video than other stuff: http://paulstamatiou.com/startup-web-design-ux-crash-course http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYEQpwduyPU

This would need some good editing. When I'm working on a website design, it can take some time for the finished version to come together. There's quite a lot of experimenting, tweaking, undoing etc... going on.

Nice idea though.

Re: Watch other people code

#23

Post by richcollins » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:34 PM UTC

It would be awesome if you could also somehow download a VM that you could run that would match the environment and then replay the coding session, pausing it to poke around when needed.

Re: Watch other people code

#24

Post by richcollins » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #15

Am I the only who loathe the current trend of posting things before they are finished? I am all for the lean approach, but this isn't a minimum viable product (that would be a player and a tagging system to find the language I was interested in) it is a website.

It's frustrating that we can't use the product yet, but I'm sure that people's reaction here will go a long way in helping them gauge interest.

Re: Watch other people code

#25

Post by rodh257 » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:35 PM UTC

An interesting point of reflection this poses to developers is 'am I doing something that other people would care to watch?'.

I like the motivational factors a site like this poses, challenges you to become an expert at something, and when you are coding live, forces you to stay focused on the task at hand. Looking forward to the launch.

Re: Watch other people code

#26

Post by swah » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:42 PM UTC

Yes, but as I've picked those bash and vim tips, I'd like to see someone hacking on a largish, real world project.

Perhaps the coder would be given a random bug and you would see the process from he reading the bug until the patch lands. That I would pay.

Re: Watch other people code

#27

Post by ParadisoShlee_ » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:42 PM UTC

Notch had thousands of people at one time, watching him code and justin.tv cost him 14k? I hope you can find a way...

I wonder who would pay to watch linus pull in git requests :)

This would be amazing for teaching people how to code.. step by step lessons with a verbal explanation on top of the visual aids and real code on a real ui..

Re: Watch other people code

#28

Post by localhost3000 » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

Am I the only one who thinks this might be incredibly boring? Seriously, over the course of say, a 10 hour coding day, how many inspired, exciting, or even interesting moments are there? That is alot of 'dead air'... This feels like an Onion satire on the popularization of 'geek'

Re: Watch other people code

#29

Post by anons2011 » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:45 PM UTC

rjd wrote: post #19

I think mine would need an R18 rating when I go into swearing fits at the .net framework and permission issues :P

Ha! "Why won't this work!!!" Endless alt-tabbing for googling stuff, I know because I do it too!

Re: Watch other people code

#30

Post by jqueryin » Wed, Sep 14, 2011, 12:50 PM UTC

localhost3000 wrote: post #28

Am I the only one who thinks this might be incredibly boring? Seriously, over the course of say, a 10 hour coding day, how many inspired, exciting, or even interesting moments are there? That is alot of 'dead air'... This feels like an Onion satire on the popularization of 'geek'

You've got to think outside of the box a bit. They could use this for remote interviews that entail live problem solving. It could really help cut down the number of candidates that require in-person interviews if they live in another state.