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Watch other people code

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Re: Watch other people code

#61

Well, there's already http://showMeDo.com which is really great. Covers lots of programming and related functions like using IDEs like Eclipse and editors like Vim. There's also tutorial episodes on design like suggested by a commenter before. No Photoshop or the rest of the Adobe CS suite however, all F/LOSS like GIMP and Inkscape. I'm actually practicing by learning from Eric Florenzo's playlist on Django here[1].…

I hate video tutorials. They're far too slow compared to just reading something.

Watching someone code is different, though. It's not prepared in advance, it doesn't have them trying to be a braggart and show you some clever thing they know, and you actually get to see their process as they go from idea to software.

Re: Watch other people code

#62
post #14

I bet I have a better idea for you. Set up the same thing for watching people design. I don't design much, but I love and learn incredible amounts from watching people design. Could be any format -- web, print, architectural, etc. Design is inherently more visual, so watching others communicates more and is probably more fun and engaging. Also I suspect more people design than code so you probably get a bigger audien…

Good idea. As part of the recording stream, it would be nice if the mouse clicks and keypresses were somehow documented (and maybe presented in sync with the video as an overlay or beneath the video?) which would allow the viewer to figure out exactly what the person did and how they did it.

Re: Watch other people code

#64
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would need some good editing. When I'm working on a website design, it can take some time for the finished version to come together. There's quite a lot of experimenting, tweaking, undoing etc... going on. Nice idea though.

That is all part of the design process, I'm not sure why you would edit it out.

Gotta edit out when you check HN =P

Re: Watch other people code

#65
post #53
post #4

I've grown the most as a programmer literally kneeling or standing behind the shoulder of programmers with 5 to 8 years more experience than I had. Those hours I spent in that position was more beneficial than hours sitting in expensive classes, hours spent debugging, hours spent reading, hours spent building new programs... combined. The speed of great content delivery by watching someone much better than you code c…

I agree. It isn't just pure programming that I have learned either. It is learning more about tools, different apps, different workflows, and new debugging tips. Also, I don't think the experience matters. Someone fresh out of school may have a new trick to teach me or a 20 year veteran has an old school trick I never new.

Yes, it is often the non-programming tricks that allow me to be a more productive programmer. Watching other programmers use a few powerful commands in vim, plus a cool flag for grep I didn't know about, plus how to efficiently organize things in directories to quickly find things, etc. All these little tricks I learned from a couple programmers my first year probably doubled my productivity as a programmer.

Re: Watch other people code

#66
post #58
post #15

Am I the only who loathe the current trend of posting things before they are finished? I am all for the lean approach, but this isn't a minimum viable product (that would be a player and a tagging system to find the language I was interested in) it is a website.

Unfortunately MVP is one of those terms like "pivot" that got out of control. An MVP is "the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort." http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-... This is a great example of an MVP. If nobody signs up, he knows there is no demand for this pro…

This is a great example of a launch page, not an MVP. It's not 'a version of a new product', it's marketing information about a proposed product.

One reason it's a good example of a launch page is that it tells you before you enter your address that the product isn't available yet. Many launch pages these days talk about the non-existent product, ask for your address, and only then tell you the product isn't available. They try to start a business by lying to their prospective customers. I'm glad to see that this one shows integrity by telling the truth about availability.

Re: Watch other people code

#67
post #58
post #15

Am I the only who loathe the current trend of posting things before they are finished? I am all for the lean approach, but this isn't a minimum viable product (that would be a player and a tagging system to find the language I was interested in) it is a website.

Unfortunately MVP is one of those terms like "pivot" that got out of control. An MVP is "the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort." http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-... This is a great example of an MVP. If nobody signs up, he knows there is no demand for this pro…

You don't seem to understand that the 'product' part of MVP requires an actual working product... not a landing page.

Re: Watch other people code

#68
This is a great idea.

Here's a 8h-1m time lapse of somebody implementing Snake3D in Clojure. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHARNkMi5Lg

Time lapse could be a way of getting an overview of the session, and then 'zooming' into the bit you're interested in, like when you say 'wait! how did you do that!'. Perhaps this could be implemented as a scalable timeline scrollbar.

The timeline could include comments like Soundcloud so people can ask and answer how to do something when and where they see it.

The stream should include keystrokes and mouse gestures as well as video. There should also be links to things like dotfiles on github.

If the recording/uploading process can snapshot the process tree of the window it is recording, this could be used to automatically tag the video (e.g. vim editing Clojure code on Windows, Illustrator on Mac), which would be nice for subscribing to feeds of tags.

Re: Watch other people code

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though this is reasonable, I wonder if it's measuring the right thing. Since money isn't involved (as far as I know), people could be entering their email just out of curiosity. It's easy to provide an email for a notification of completion, after which, make a decision to continue with participation or move on entirely.

You get the emails so you can do "Customer Development". You email them back and schedule an interview to learn more about your customers. It isn't something where you say yes/no based on the number of signups.

So that's what it's been called. Lately I've been having people trying to schedule interviews with me about their service.

It's so incredibly annoying, because it wastes my time, and I get to learn that they are considering charging way way way more than I'd ever want to spent, so I stop using them regardless.

It's like a lose/lose scenario. I get the impression their pitching out different money numbers to try and see response, but when you say something clearly off the wall, I just stop using your service.

I don't want there to be some possibility a month or two down the road that you're going to try and up the price to one of those insane ones you asked me about.

So far for me, "Customer Development" is the single largest turnoff for any application.

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