Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

blog.freecodecamp.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 135 posts

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#101

Post by ibebrett »

axotty wrote: post #100
ibebrett wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose so, it just seems that the odds that you may need to work on a machine that isn't setup for you is probably going to be pretty high at some point. I agree that RSI is probably something we should avoid, but other than that things like typing speed have zero effect (in my experience).

It's takes a trivial amount of time to set up these layouts on most machines. I agree that good typing skills do not necessarily make you a more productive programmer. But I do find that it is a skill that compliments other programming skills nicely. It's also nice for countless other parts of my workflow that do not include programming.

let me put it this way. i have never met a programmer who's productivity was at all based on their typing speed.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#102

Post by [deleted] »

ibebrett wrote: post #101
axotty wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's takes a trivial amount of time to set up these layouts on most machines. I agree that good typing skills do not necessarily make you a more productive programmer. But I do find that it is a skill that compliments other programming skills nicely. It's also nice for countless other parts of my workflow that do not include programming.

let me put it this way. i have never met a programmer who's productivity was at all based on their typing speed.

[deleted]

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#103

Post by axotty »

ibebrett wrote: post #101
axotty wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's takes a trivial amount of time to set up these layouts on most machines. I agree that good typing skills do not necessarily make you a more productive programmer. But I do find that it is a skill that compliments other programming skills nicely. It's also nice for countless other parts of my workflow that do not include programming.

let me put it this way. i have never met a programmer who's productivity was at all based on their typing speed.

I think you misunderstood me. I never claimed anything like that. In fact I suggested most of the benefits of touch typing are not related to programming.

That being said, you will never know the benefits of touch typing if you can't touch type. You seem to be threatened by the thought of it being a valuable skill so I won't try to convince you otherwise.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#104

Post by Sammi »

kiraken wrote: post #83

This blog post is an insult to every developer out there. The blogger actually want us to believe that he just overheard a conversation, went home, googled what ever he said he heard and in 7 months became an expert and landed a job. So in my professional opinion, and i do get to say that as opposed to the blogger since i actually studied Computer science and been a developer for 20 YEARS, that his story is a work of…

> or the company that hired him is one of those startups that just hires anyone that walks in the door like most of them these days.

Ding ding ding.

You could replace startups with company though, because there are loads of companies of different ages that would hire someone with only 7 months of self study of programming.

Cause the thing is that the industry is starving for software developers. Those that are not employed either live in rural areas without jobs in general, aren't trying, or are just unbelievably bad at job interviews or work overall.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#105

Post by Sammi »

bitwize wrote: post #90

I like the idea to choose one language, but... Start with Python. You're going to hear Ruby this and JavaScript that and Swift the other -- but seriously, I'm from the future. You should start with Python. It's essentially BASIC for this century: a great place to start learning the basics without being too weird. There's plenty of time and once you have those cold, you can investigate other languages, including the f…

Yeah, aren't most universities using Python for beginners now?

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#106

Post by ibebrett »

axotty wrote: post #103
ibebrett wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

let me put it this way. i have never met a programmer who's productivity was at all based on their typing speed.

I think you misunderstood me. I never claimed anything like that. In fact I suggested most of the benefits of touch typing are not related to programming. That being said, you will never know the benefits of touch typing if you can't touch type. You seem to be threatened by the thought of it being a valuable skill so I won't try to convince you otherwise.

i can touch type just fine. I'm not threatened by the concept of touch typing, I am making the case that its a waste of time to try and learn to touch type another keyboard map. While it may have some benefit, there are literally thousands of things you can do that will be much more useful than learning to touch type dvorak.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#107

Post by twic »

pnathan wrote: post #94
cbd1984 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> +1 I strongly believe that we're a profession and should have professional standards. As long as we don't kill the goose which laid a lot of us golden eggs. If we destroy the ability of newbie programmers to come up outside the university-professional path, we've just irreparably damaged the whole field. This is also why I don't like the idea of unionizing programmers: Even if we come up with a union which isn't ba…

> If we destroy the ability of newbie programmers to come up outside the university-professional path, we've just irreparably damaged the whole field. I don't believe that, to be honest. There's a profound difference between a highly qualified professional and a hobbyist, and I am perfectly happy demanding that the first have a credential.

This could work as long as the award of the credential actually signified a capability to do the job. Most of our current university education about software ("computer science") is only distantly related to doing the job.

By analogy to another professional field, computer science is to the working software-maker as physiology is to the working doctor. It's the foundation of the field, and so it's something one has to study at the start of one's training, but it's of little relevance to the actual day-to-day work, and it certainly doesn't form the basis of qualification.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#108

Post by axotty »

ibebrett wrote: post #106
axotty wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood me. I never claimed anything like that. In fact I suggested most of the benefits of touch typing are not related to programming. That being said, you will never know the benefits of touch typing if you can't touch type. You seem to be threatened by the thought of it being a valuable skill so I won't try to convince you otherwise.

i can touch type just fine. I'm not threatened by the concept of touch typing, I am making the case that its a waste of time to try and learn to touch type another keyboard map. While it may have some benefit, there are literally thousands of things you can do that will be much more useful than learning to touch type dvorak.

We've come full circle to my original reply to you. If you are going to learn to touch type you are starting from zero with QWERTY anyways so using a new layout wouldn't add any additional time.

> there are literally thousands of things you can do that will be much more useful than learning to touch type dvorak.

You could say this about any skill or hobby. You are not the arbiter of usefulness. Plenty of people have derived utility from learning to touch type Dvorak or Colemak. You're writing them off out of pure ignorance.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#109

Post by pnathan »

twic wrote: post #107
pnathan wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we destroy the ability of newbie programmers to come up outside the university-professional path, we've just irreparably damaged the whole field. I don't believe that, to be honest. There's a profound difference between a highly qualified professional and a hobbyist, and I am perfectly happy demanding that the first have a credential.

This could work as long as the award of the credential actually signified a capability to do the job. Most of our current university education about software ("computer science") is only distantly related to doing the job. By analogy to another professional field, computer science is to the working software-maker as physiology is to the working doctor. It's the foundation of the field, and so it's something one has t…

> award of the credential actually signified a capability to do the job.

without a doubt.

Re: A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code

#110

Post by twic »

TillE wrote: post #52
cranklin wrote: post #42

The problem is that crash-course developers are too satisfied with just making something work and most online tutorials are focused on language syntax. If you're learning to code, great for you... but I'd be scared to be part of your team, maintaining your code.

Yeah. There's a huge difference between learning "how to code", and how to actually design good software. Lots of a focus on the former, almost none on the latter.

I'll cut the young 'uns some slack here. You need to learn how to assemble curly brackets and semicolons and whatnot into a machine that actually does something before you can learn how to design machines. The art of design is the difficult and important part, but it's impossible to learn it before learning the basics of construction.
Post reply on HN