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λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

snap.berkeley.edu

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Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#111
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but how many are actually doing AI programming in Snap? Remember, I am still waiting for your definition of what "_really_ programming" is, that classifies Scheme as "real" programming language, but not Snap!. Clue: it's impossible to make such a definition, because Snap! is fully as powerful as Scheme (and not in the trivial sense of "Turing Completeness"), just easier for kids to use. Again, you're only proving t…

I replied at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49675110 I'm well aware that Snap has this stuff in it, and I understand it is used to teach and get kids interested about programming, I know. I still do not understand why you'd want to learn AI with Snap/Scratch. I don't think that's a very controversial opinion? If you just want to show kids some basic stuff okay sure, why not. By the time you'd want to mess with…

You keep conspicuously avoiding answering my question about your definition of "_really_ programming", because it paints you into a corner and proves you are wrong, and you don't want to admit it.

>I still do not understand why you'd want to learn AI with Snap/Scratch.

At this point you're just desparately sealioning. You are intentionally pretending to be stupid, and I don't believe your act.

>And like, saying that Scratch is a toy language, [...]

Please stop right there. You are moving the goalposts. This is a discussion about Snap!, not Scratch. You made those false claims about Snap!, not Scratch. I've proven Snap! is not a toy language already.

Conspicuously attempting to move the goalposts to a totally different language does not refute what I said, it just once again proves my point that you are not arguing in good faith.

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#112
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not _really_ programming You're dead wrong. Prove it. Explain what you mean. Give us your definition of what _really_ programming is, and prove that Scheme, Python, and JavaScript are _really_ programming by that definition, but Snap! isn't. So is Scheme "_really_ programming" or not? What exactly is Snap! missing that Scheme has, that disqualifies it from being "_really_ programming"? If as I predict you dodg…

> You're dead wrong. Prove it. Explain what you mean. Give us your definition of what _really_ programming is, and prove that Scheme, Python, and JavaScript are _really_ programming by that definition, but Snap! isn't. Nobody is using Snap in production or writing real applications with it. The same can't be said for Python or JS. When you're writing Python or JS, you are truly writing code. I would say Scheme is pro…

> I would say Scheme is programming because it's literally a Lisp dialect, and Lisp is still used so.. yeah.

Snap! is literally a Scheme dialect.

So by your own definition, Snap! is a "real" programming language. I'm glad I finally convinced you to change your mind when confronted with irrefutable evidence!

But that's an weird definition that makes languages like Scheme and Snap! stop being "real" programming if Lisp stops being used. Is that really what you mean? A language can change from "real" to "not real" depending on how much another language is used?

Again, please drill down and elaborate and refine and debug your definition of what a "real" programming language, because it has a lot of holes and inconsistencies in it. See if you can whack all those moles.

> Nobody is using Snap in production

Teaching children AI programming and Computer Science concepts IS PRODUCTION. It's producing the next generation of human beings. Those children are live and shipping in the real world. There is no dev or qa deployment.

> Again reminding you to self-reflect because this is unhinged. What is wrong with you?

Musk making a Nazi salute twice on live international TV was definitely unhinged, we can both agree. Are you unhinged enough to do it too? Even recorded on youtube, under your hn handle, if you're too cowardly to do it under your own name like unhinged Musk did? Why are you defending a man so unhinged that you refuse to do the same thing he does?

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What device did you get your nephew? When I was looking for one, those listed on the Make Code website were pretty bad and expensive (or unavailable). I would love to find an affordable retro handheld like Miyoo or Anbernic with Make Code support.

I got the Elecfreaks Retro Arcade for Education, I'm sure it's not as bulletproof as an actual Gameboy so he uses it with his parents around rather than taking it everywhere with him, but it works!

https://wiki.elecfreaks.com/en/retroarcade/retro-case-06

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#114
post #32

Scratch is how I first learned programming. I was building increasingly ambitious projects in it, and at some point the editor itself became the main thing I was fighting. Once a project got to around 10,000 blocks, it could get painfully laggy, and I ended up spending a lot of time engineering around Scratch's limits. That is what eventually led me to build goboscript: https://github.com/aspizu/goboscript I'm one of…

I think John Carmack was looking for you recently.

https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/2094450188911845827

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#115
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I replied at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49675110 I'm well aware that Snap has this stuff in it, and I understand it is used to teach and get kids interested about programming, I know. I still do not understand why you'd want to learn AI with Snap/Scratch. I don't think that's a very controversial opinion? If you just want to show kids some basic stuff okay sure, why not. By the time you'd want to mess with…

You keep conspicuously avoiding answering my question about your definition of "_really_ programming", because it paints you into a corner and proves you are wrong, and you don't want to admit it. >I still do not understand why you'd want to learn AI with Snap/Scratch. At this point you're just desparately sealioning. You are intentionally pretending to be stupid, and I don't believe your act. >And like, saying that…

> You keep conspicuously avoiding answering my question about your definition of "_really_ programming", because it paints you into a corner and proves you are wrong, and you don't want to admit it.

No. Almost anyone here would be fine with someone saying that using Scratch/Snap is not really programming in the same way that you'd use real languages to do stuff. It's obvious what it means.

> At this point you're just desparately sealioning. You are intentionally pretending to be stupid, and I don't believe your act.

No I am not, but are you pretending to be stupid here?

Otherwise, why wouldn't almost all AI learning and demos be done with Snap if it's so amazing? Why is it only done in these conference recordings that have like 500 views on youtube?

You're convinced that this Scratch-like "language" is somehow so incredible that you cannot criticize it or claim that it only fulfills a specific niche and that its not the same as actual general purpose languages that we use in the real world like Python, JS, C, C++, Go and so on.

> Please stop right there. You are moving the goalposts. This is a discussion about Snap!, not Scratch.

Same thing applies. I don't care how much this Scratch-like language is extended, it doesn't matter, my point still applies, it's not useful beyond a specific niche which seems to be to teach kids basic things about logic and programming, not actual software engineering.

If you would've read what I wrote:

> And like, saying that Scratch is a toy language, I don't think that's a very controversial thing to say, so if I said the same thing about this, why be so offended over it? calling it BS, I can get that, but it was never directed towards anyone specifically, it was towards visual programming languages in general like Scratch. They serve a purpose, sure, but in my view, a very limited one. And I still don't see this being used like other languages for real stuff, aside from limited demos and exercises for kids.

If you read this part fully:

"And like, saying that Scratch is a toy language, I don't think that's a very controversial thing to say, so if I said the same thing about this, why be so offended over it?"

You would see that I am indeed talking about Snap, not just Scratch.

Do I have to believe your "act"?

Also, you seem to be consistently hostile, maybe because you're frustrated at the fact that I am being very reasonable here, and you're trying to force me into liking your language or whatever and admit that its super useful language and it's not working, because you're used to always having your way?

I have gone out of my way to be reasonable with you and argue with you in good faith, and you keep bringing insults and accusations and keep implying that I'm a Nazi or something.

Think about it, you're so upset over the fact that I don't consider a colored block drag and drop interface/system a real programming language that's used in the real world that you're doing all this and constantly attacking me and getting angry over my very reasonable arguments

It's unhealthy and you should maybe ask one of those friends if what you're doing is reasonable or not. Maybe they can get you the help you need.

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#116

A note to those commenters who complain that visual programming doesn't help you learn software engineering: Right, you aren't our target audience. We're after the people who aren't going to major in computer science in college, but who're curious what all the fuss is about. They've taken high school algebra, so they know what a variable is and what a function is. (They don't have to know about functions as data, but…

Wasn't one other neat thing about Snap! and Scratch that you can translate the entire code (except for the user-named parts) to any other language on the fly without worrying about it breaking? Because in a sense the language is just part of the "presentation layer" of the blocks?

Re: λ Snap – An inviting programming language for kids and adults for CS study

#117
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I learned to program from block programming, starting out when I was 12. I'm now a full-time developer and funded startup founder. You absolutely can learn complex concepts from simple primitives, and there is a large underground community pushing the limits of languages like Scratch. See for example Linux running on RISC-V running on Scratch: https://turbowarp.org/1201938491

In my experience, there’s no better way to learn more complex programming techniques or tools than running into a brick wall with the simple tools you’re familiar with, spending a ton of time on an unreasonably irritating solution, only to realize that you’re running into a classic [n] problem and some clever person figured out a simple logical trick to address it. I mean, it can be enraging but that knowledge tends…

Couldn't agree more. To add on I think you can learn so much by doing something incredibly stupid you're really not supposed to in an intentionally constrained environment (in a good way, like the grandparent comment). The sort of absurd things that get posted here occasionally and get a few commenters genuinely annoyed that they're doing that with their time instead of curing cancer. Plus it tends to be easier than it looks.

(I think some people have caught on to this and found out that Claude is pretty good at it.. not sure what the point of that is but whatever)

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