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Please Learn to Code

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Re: Please Learn to Code

#141

Post by sgdesign »

vijayr wrote: post #126
VolatileVoid wrote: post #42

I'm actually kind of tired of hearing, "there's no other field that lets you create something from nothing" vis a vis programming. Look: I LOVE coding. I LOVE programming. I think it's fun and challenging, etc. etc. But it's not the only creative outlet that has ever existed. Have you considered a pencil and a paper? Crayons? Markers? Paints and a canvas? A hammer, some wood and some nails? "Ah, but that requires som…

Adding to the list: Singing Dancing Standup comedy Story telling etc. So yeah, saying programming is the only field that we can create something from nothing is just hogwash.

Yes, but nobody is saying that.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#142

Post by sgdesign »

Osiris wrote: post #91

I think the discussion should not be that everyone should learn to code but that everyone should have the opportunity to learn to code, if they want. We shouldn't be arguing why we should or shouldn't learned coding over other skills, like plumbing. I praise people that put in work to make learning (such as coding) an easily accessible endeavor for those that want to learn. I would also praise Khan academy and univer…

Very good point, I should've phrased it that way.

But I think the first step in giving someone the opportunity to code is to make them want to try it. So that was the intent behind me saying "everybody should learn how to code".

Re: Please Learn to Code

#144

Post by goblin89 »

VolatileVoid wrote: post #42

I'm actually kind of tired of hearing, "there's no other field that lets you create something from nothing" vis a vis programming. Look: I LOVE coding. I LOVE programming. I think it's fun and challenging, etc. etc. But it's not the only creative outlet that has ever existed. Have you considered a pencil and a paper? Crayons? Markers? Paints and a canvas? A hammer, some wood and some nails? "Ah, but that requires som…

Programming differs from other creative activities in that it's about creating a processes that create things.

Consider art. You draw a picture with pencil and a piece of paper. In programming, you define a process of drawing a picture.

True, you can still draw by hand just fine. However, imagine a picture that only exists when someone is looking at it—a picture that you can't draw in advance, only define a process that will draw it at someone's request. That's interaction, which is what programming is mostly about.

There are other activities that involve defining processes of building things—entrepreneurship comes to mind. However, programming seems to be the only one where building a process of creation is so pure and comparable to simply building a thing.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#145

Post by sasha-dv »

sgdesign wrote: post #143
davtbaum wrote: post #104

Anyone else bothered by the crappy coding style in that screenshot?

What's so crappy about it?

No comment on coding style, but you may want to look into this: http://imgur.com/sE7ul

Horizontal scrolling - a possible bug?

Screen resolution: 1024×768.

UA: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0

Re: Please Learn to Code

#146

Post by gaius »

jwoah12 wrote: post #48

It seems to me like there are ulterior motives behind a lot of programmers' hostile attitudes toward non-programmers learning some of the craft. If I didn't know any better (and I don't), I'd say that people think, consciously or otherwise, that it will somehow cheapen their skills or experience if some newbies learn basic development. I disagree. I think that if anything, it will give others more of an understanding…

Not at all. Imagine you're a full-time professional journalist working for a paper or a TV station, and I tell you, because I've written a blog post, I'm a journalist too now, and by the way, it isn't that hard, anyone can do it. You might feel that I didn't quite get it. You might also feel that publishing articles without proper fact-checking is irresponsible. And so on.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#147

Post by gaius »

T-zex wrote: post #3

Please do not compare coding to cooking.

No, it's a great analogy. Being able to whip up a delicious meal for 2 in your kitchen doesn't translate into being able to feed a banquet of 500.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#148

Post by jheriko »

I've found coding useful in every non-coding job I've had where I have sat in front of a computer in an office...

Office jobs, and general running of any business can be improved with knowledge of code - or code itself imo.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#149

Post by justinj »

the implication that learning to code results in 10,000 viewers? please. it wasn't your coding skills that brought in those UVs. by your logic, all of the sites created by shit-hot coders like us should hit 10,000 views in the first two hours easy. you're propagating the kinds of myths that i debunk daily with friends and family, who grossly underestimate the difficulty of attracting eyeballs to their content (and whose motivation sadly erodes when said eyeballs don't instantly materialise).

if people have something to contribute, there are so many tools and services out there that negate the need for coding it isn't funny. i always advocate non-coders to test out their market theories using tumblr, wordpress, facebook, twitter, posterous, pinterest, et al before rushing off to pay someone to develop something. (in fact, i think us developers should bill ourselves for our own time on our own projects, but that's fodder for another post).

should the average person understand tech? definitely. understand the web? for sure. hypertext markup? why not. javascript? yea, you can skip that.

jeff atwood, you are right on the money.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#150

Post by einhverfr »

kamjam wrote: post #107
caleywoods wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you make an impact (even if a very small one) on a large number of people over the course of a weekend with a pencil and paper? I've never had a piece of art or drawing save work/time/money for me but we have apps that do this everywhere. Art is an amazing creative outlet and I've seen some awe inspiring drawings/paintings but I've never seen one with a tangible benefit. I think if you asked several highschool…

Could you make an impact (even if a very small one) on a large number of people over the course of a weekend with a pencil and paper? Gandhi made a huge impact on a vast number of people and all he had was a white cloth and a pair of glasses! (albeit it took longer than a weekend) Joking aside, if everyone learnt to programme then there would be no need for specific programmers. Yes, it's frustrating when people don'…

My viewpoint is that I think everyone should learn a very very very basic level of programming and for two reasons:

1) Those who like it will take it further.....

2) Even writing a trivial program requires getting certain sorts of thought processes right. Once you can write trivial programs you may not be valuable as a programmer, but you will be empowered to interact with computers if you ever find yourself in your chosen work on a tangent where that's helpful.

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