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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?

#131

Post by fy20 »

gandalfff wrote: post #129
_fjb4 wrote: post #50

There's something the "old hackers" know that many CS students don't learn from the start (in the introductory classes), and that is actually how a computer operates. Don't spend a lot of time on this unless he's really interested, but it's a good idea to sit down with him for a few hours and teach him what really goes on inside a computer. I'm talking about the concept of instructions, registers, addressable memory,…

Non-programmer here. I've been interested in learning more about exactly this. Where should I start?

When I was a kid I'd often spend an evening on a deep dive reading How Stuff Works (as Wikipedia didn't exist then).

https://computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm

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

#132

Post by KerrAvon »

p1esk wrote: post #121
jollofricepeas wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is pretty common. For the most part my friends and work pals who are all software engineers or work closely with tech (DBAs, SREs, Sec). Their children aren’t allowed to use the internet unsupervised or in some cases not at all. Pretty much all of us don’t let our kids use social media. For my friends who don’t work in tech, their kids all have social media and use the internet unsupervised.

Why not?

We know the downsides.

https://twitter.com/ppathole/status/1116670170980859905?lang...

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

#133

Post by gandalfff »

fy20 wrote: post #131
gandalfff wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-programmer here. I've been interested in learning more about exactly this. Where should I start?

When I was a kid I'd often spend an evening on a deep dive reading How Stuff Works (as Wikipedia didn't exist then). https://computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm

Thanks for this, looks like a solid introduction!

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

#134

Post by officehero »

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…

What about playing a game about learning to code instead of writing a game? I spent a few days on codecombat.com as a beginner and thought it was both a great learning experience and an entertaining game.

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

#136

Post by laserbeam »

I see a lot of comments about fun resources and useful automation. Those can get you to like programming... But most value I've ever gotten in the field was from algorithmic challenges. From contests. They are generally pretty dry, but it's the same way you learn maths or physics. Solving problems.

I can only remember one in Romanian, but I'm sure google is your friend.

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

#139

Post by sn9 »

smiley1437 wrote: post #42

Harvard's CS50x (taken through edX) is absolutely amazing as an intro to computer science. Professor David Malan is really engaging. I cannot recommend it highly enough. And, if you don't care for the certificate at the end of the course, it's free

In addition to being quite possibly the best free introduction to CS and programming available online, it also has sequel courses in web development, AI, and game development that one could take.

Alternatively, or in addition, you could follow this course with NAND to Tetris, which had its second addition come out last year and will give any student a firm foundation in understanding lots of low-level details with project-based learning that only requires some basic programming skill.

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

#140

Post by badcc »

chaostheory wrote: post #116

Roblox. Everything is free including a nice visual IDE. There's lots of documentation and lots of 3rd party education. It's LUA. Best of all, unlike all the other alternatives, there's no configuration or setup beyond installing Roblox and Roblox Studio, the IDE. There's also a chance to make money on the Roblox platform. https://developer.roblox.com/en-us/onboarding If you want something more traditional, Rails for…

Agreed about Roblox!! Started (unintentionally) teaching myself how to program on Roblox when I was 9, and turned it into a career! Making games encompasses so many areas of programming/creation. Even beyond programming (back end, front end, UI), music composition, sound effects, animation, design, game design.. and share it all with your friends. Alternatively, a simple engine like Love2D (which also happens to be Lua)
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