Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#21

Post by CeRRuTiTo » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:01 PM UTC

amitport wrote: post #17

Can you tell us more about you and about the user experience? how are you planning to evaluate a participants current progress? who is going to write the content? (best practices and exercises) Disclaimer: I've created CardForest.com (in-progress), which is possibly targeting a similar audience.

Hi, I am glad you are creating such application, it seems really interesting. Here is more info about the app, we are about to build:

- the evaluation of the progress is going to happen by running it against tests written in advance and against tools that evaluate code quality. The algorithm that is going to calculate the exact percent is yet to be created.

- user experience is the most important thing for me, if it is good and not intruding, it will help developers to stick in the application longer and learn more things (I guess)

- my hope is that the content (best practices and exercises) will be constantly updated and written by the best developers in the field or by authors that will be specifically chosen for that purpose

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#22

Post by mreiland » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:10 PM UTC

teamhappy wrote: post #18

zalmoxes wrote: post #4

Two white guys at the top. Black guy in third place. Woman is last. Maybe not the best way to represent progress in the demo...

They could put Steve Buscemi at the top to stop people from interpreting contrived examples.

lmao

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#23

Post by CeRRuTiTo » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:10 PM UTC

cyanfrog wrote: post #13

Animations on the site work very slow on my office PC. Maybe velocity.js will help :)

Hey, the choice was between transit.js and velocity.js. I don't think we made the wrong choice to go with transit.js, but next time we will definitely try velocity.js :D

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#24

Post by CeRRuTiTo » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

FeymanFan78 wrote: post #19

It seems like a cool concept. However I would like to see it have some type of functionality. Am I missing something. This appears to be a demo to me. As such I feel a little bit duped that it doesn't make it abundantly clear that it is just a demo. If I was a VC I would be frustrated that this does not at least have some type of simulation even if you don't have the multi-user competition working yet. At least codin…

I am sorry you were disappointed in what you saw in comparison to what you expected. But I think it's very important to get feedback in such an early stage of development, even for a storyboard explaining the idea. This post proved really useful for us.

Either way, thank you for the honest comment :)

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#25

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

CeRRuTiTo wrote: post #24

FeymanFan78 wrote: post #19

It seems like a cool concept. However I would like to see it have some type of functionality. Am I missing something. This appears to be a demo to me. As such I feel a little bit duped that it doesn't make it abundantly clear that it is just a demo. If I was a VC I would be frustrated that this does not at least have some type of simulation even if you don't have the multi-user competition working yet. At least codin…

I am sorry you were disappointed in what you saw in comparison to what you expected. But I think it's very important to get feedback in such an early stage of development, even for a storyboard explaining the idea. This post proved really useful for us. Either way, thank you for the honest comment :)

[deleted]

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#26

Post by JustSomeNobody » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:31 PM UTC

CeRRuTiTo wrote: post #7

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #5

Just had an Eats, shoots & leaves moment with that title. I was thinking, why does anyone need to learn to code fast?

Well, learning a programming language is slow process, our idea is to make it faster and help the skills to stick better. I can't remember all the cases in which I learned something and had to relearn it again after that - only if my process of learning was better, it might have sticked from the first time. :) That's what we are trying to do. I don't know if we will succeed or not, but we are going to at least try.

Edit: Rewritten to try and be more clear.

I initially read it as learning to code fast, as in how quickly someone can actually develop an app and not how quickly someone can learn to program.

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#27

Post by FeymanFan78 » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:32 PM UTC

CeRRuTiTo wrote: post #24

FeymanFan78 wrote: post #19

It seems like a cool concept. However I would like to see it have some type of functionality. Am I missing something. This appears to be a demo to me. As such I feel a little bit duped that it doesn't make it abundantly clear that it is just a demo. If I was a VC I would be frustrated that this does not at least have some type of simulation even if you don't have the multi-user competition working yet. At least codin…

I am sorry you were disappointed in what you saw in comparison to what you expected. But I think it's very important to get feedback in such an early stage of development, even for a storyboard explaining the idea. This post proved really useful for us. Either way, thank you for the honest comment :)

Cool. Thank you for your reply. On the layout etc. I think it is great work. I was just ready to test my skills or lack thereof, lol. You know if the synchronous competition proves to be tough you could log metrics for certain exercises and use statistics like standard deviation etc. so people can now how they stack up to everyone else. This may also shed some light on the relative difficulty of certain exercises for the population as a whole.

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#28

Post by CeRRuTiTo » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:34 PM UTC

CeRRuTiTo wrote: post #7

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #5

Just had an Eats, shoots & leaves moment with that title. I was thinking, why does anyone need to learn to code fast?

Well, learning a programming language is slow process, our idea is to make it faster and help the skills to stick better. I can't remember all the cases in which I learned something and had to relearn it again after that - only if my process of learning was better, it might have sticked from the first time. :) That's what we are trying to do. I don't know if we will succeed or not, but we are going to at least try.

Yes, know I saw what I wrote.. My mistake for hurrying to post it and not being careful :D I hope after people see the site will understand what I meant.

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#29

Post by gravity13 » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:36 PM UTC

markbnj wrote: post #20

I'd like to see a competition called "Learn to Code Slow" that encourages people to think and design good solutions and then implement them robustly.

And perhaps the winner is decided after the fact by a vote, based on metrics of efficiency, elegance, etc...

I'd love to see a more natural, bite-sizable, exposure to other programming languages and/or paradigms in this way.

Re: Bitlean: Learn to code fast by competing against other developers

#30

Post by FeymanFan78 » Thu, Mar 05, 2015, 4:40 PM UTC

FeymanFan78 wrote: post #27

CeRRuTiTo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sorry you were disappointed in what you saw in comparison to what you expected. But I think it's very important to get feedback in such an early stage of development, even for a storyboard explaining the idea. This post proved really useful for us. Either way, thank you for the honest comment :)

Cool. Thank you for your reply. On the layout etc. I think it is great work. I was just ready to test my skills or lack thereof, lol. You know if the synchronous competition proves to be tough you could log metrics for certain exercises and use statistics like standard deviation etc. so people can now how they stack up to everyone else. This may also shed some light on the relative difficulty of certain exercises for…

Ex. large standard deviation wide bell curve would mean there is a major disparity among the understanding of a concept for developers that use the site. A small standard deviation and tight bell curve would represent a more consistent understanding level among the sample population. I am assuming time being the main metric. You could also use the code quality as a metric also.