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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?

#91

Post by heavyset_go »

What are they interested in? If they're interested in building games, show them Itch.io and how to download the code of the games they think are cool. Show them Pygame and/or Godot.

JavaScript in the browser allows for quick feedback loops that I think can be rewarding for beginners.

Help them come up with projects that they're interested in and will challenge them a bit, but are also tractable. Beginners won't have the context to be able to scope a project out, or to decide what is realistic and feasible, either. I find that can be a roadblock for people who are just starting out, where they learn the basics but can't figure out what to do with them.

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

#92

Post by bayareabadboy »

What’s he into? I got into programming as a tool to further my other interests. For a lot of people here I think that’s video games. For me, it was setting up websites, then web-scraping projects. I think that’s prolly less important than the tech, but yeah can’t go wrong with python and vscode

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

#93

Post by heavyset_go »

giantg2 wrote: post #70

I think I'll go against the advice of others here. I would first start him on some guided C++ projects that illustrate basic syntax, data structures, explain libraries, pointer, how memory works, etc. I wouldn't spend a lot of time here. Some simple but neat console games that also showcase some math coolness (like guess a number between 1-100, then say you can guess it in 7 or fewer guesses). This is how I learned,…

I've watched students change majors because of, or regret taking, C++ tracts in college versus tracts that used Python or Java. I think the potential complexity that C++ offers can scare beginners away from programming, as they might feel overwhelmed even when learning its basics.

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

#94

Post by giantg2 »

heavyset_go wrote: post #93
giantg2 wrote: post #70

I think I'll go against the advice of others here. I would first start him on some guided C++ projects that illustrate basic syntax, data structures, explain libraries, pointer, how memory works, etc. I wouldn't spend a lot of time here. Some simple but neat console games that also showcase some math coolness (like guess a number between 1-100, then say you can guess it in 7 or fewer guesses). This is how I learned,…

I've watched students change majors because of, or regret taking, C++ tracts in college versus tracts that used Python or Java. I think the potential complexity that C++ offers can scare beginners away from programming, as they might feel overwhelmed even when learning its basics.

Yeah, that's why I said only for a brief period and it has to be guided projects that are simple.

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

#98

Post by maroonblazer »

xxxtentachyon wrote: post #84
TobTobXX wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not the parent but, as the parent of a 16 year old, I can imagine that some kids at age 12 simply aren't mature enough to be let loose on the internet.

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

#99

Post by boogies »

cellularmitosis wrote: post #69
corysama wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

I’ll second the recommendation for PICO-8 to get started with making games. The built-in game browser, combined with being able to easily see the source for those games is fantastic. https://gist.github.com/cellularmitosis/6e191bf6b6f062e5f558...

> The built-in game browser, combined with being able to easily see the source for those games is fantastic.

TIC-80 gives you those + all four essential freedoms (seeing, sharing, modifying and using) with the source of the fantasy console itself.

There are some good examples prepackaged with it (from drawing a single sprite to a little ~½ dozen screen top-down action adventure).

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