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Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

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Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#81

Post by pcthrowaway »

Jtsummers wrote: post #76
aleksiy123 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What formal CS education doesn't cover how computers work at a low level? It would seem like the opposite. Most self-taught programmers are probably missing foundational knowledge that doesn't directly apply to their day to day.

Every CS program of middling quality or above covers that material, but some may shove that coursework into mostly elective courses. Also, students can pass courses without really learning anything so if it's just one or two courses that really dive that deep over their academic career, they can learn enough to pass and then brain dump it.

Can confirm, I studied CS and don't feel like I really understand any of the low-level stuff.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#82

Post by sidibe »

To diverge a little from most of the answers which are about making games or something useful, I had trouble getting going on ANYTHING with that advice. I think I only started actually coding when I looked at projecteuler.com just because the problems started so contained and achievable. Before that I only tried to read a book and copied the code from that (this was a dead end for me). I realize some people hate this kind of exercise or find it boring and a grind, but for some people it is actually fun and if that's the case they should really take advantage of it getting started.

These days there's plenty of sites like leetcode where you don't have to set up anything at all and they can give you little bite-size problems that will make you learn the basics with a feeling of accomplishment.

Incidentally, if they decide they like these kinds of problems and want to become a professional programmer, spending some time on Leetcode or codeforces (later as it requires a little setup) alone can get them a good job these days. People around here dislike this fact but it is so useful if it turns out your child enjoys these kinds of problems.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#83

Post by catsarebetter »

cinntaile wrote: post #16
catsarebetter wrote: post #10

Do you know what he wants to build? Probably has lots of different things that he wants to learn so help him explore each. Python for command line stuff and backend stuff, vanilla JS, html, css for blogs or web pages. There's also either online classes like Udemy or in person camps or summer programs that would be great, he can meet ppl his own age trying to code too. I know a few years back iOS coding classes were t…

I agree with the parent that the focus should probably be on something he wants to build or a problem he wants to solve. It's easier to stay motivated that way.

Haha not a parent but thank you

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#84

Post by xxxtentachyon »

TobTobXX wrote: post #59
albertzeyer wrote: post #25

I usually recommend everyone who wants to learn programming: - to write some games, - or alternative to write some tools to be used for themselves to automate or simplify some of their tasks. Writing games can be so much fun, and is incredibly deep such that you can pretty much touch upon all topics of programming, networking, computer science, algorithms and data structures, artificial intelligence, 3D graphics, GPU…

Yes, agree about the last paragraph 100%. I'm only 19 and got into programming maybe 7 years ago. At the time I was gifted a Raspbery Pi. Next to the infamous Scratch, there were about 10 pygame examples. I got the itch to modify them. Trough trial and error I somehow found the source files and I just started removing code and changing numbers. At some point I started copying lines I've seen and recomposing them. As…

Can you say more about not being allowed on the internet? Why and how you think it affected you?

It’s hard for me to fathom someone at age 12 in 2015 with a somewhat cosmopolitan background (playing games, using an RPi), not being allowed on the internet, period.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#86

Post by lolinder »

redredrobot wrote: post #63

Python is a great option because it is high-level, easy to pick up, powerful and has a library for anything they are interested in pursuing. Something like streamlit is cool because you can write a small amount of code to build a useful web app that you can interact with. For data viz related things, Jupyter + Python (maybe Pandas, not SciPy or NumPy unless that sort of math is specifically interesting to them) Javas…

> Javascript and webdev is also a decent option since you can build such interesting and shareable web apps quickly, but the frameworks and scaffolding can be intimidating and painful.

JavaScript can be a great choice for some people as long as you don't try to build a production-level web app from the get go. Start them with a bare HTML file loaded up in the browser and only scale up from there when they start actually having the problems that the scaffolding is designed to solve.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#88

Post by bsenftner »

Blender (the FOSS 3D modeling, animation & rendering software) has a recently updated UI that is significantly easier to use, the embedded language within is Python, and the number of tutorials covering a vast range of interests is noteworthy. You don't really know what will captivate your kid, and the range of applications and learning opportunities with Blender covers a large range of potential interests.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#90

Post by zelphirkalt »

I would still call this an SICP case. SICP simply teaches so many things right, that I would deem it the single most important book on programming I read. I still draw from that and it helps me avoid cludgy mistake prone code. The only regret is, that no one has told me about it earlier. The original SICP using Scheme is to be preferred over the "reimplementations" in languages, which lack some of the important language features, that the book hits on and that Scheme has. Maybe also link to the recorded lectures, to give an idea about what great teachers look like.
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