Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

#71

Post by mrfregg » Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 2:41 AM UTC

cheeze wrote: post #10

You can learn how to program from books. Phone should be no problem either. But it is going to be much, much harder to learn how to program anything with any decent level of complexity. Writing everything in a single file? Sure. Writing a java app which has 20 classes? Sounds like hell. And while linux terminal isn't really programming, sending key combos like ^d sounds terrible on a phone keyboard. Something else th…

>sending key combos like ^d sounds terrible on a phone keyboard.

Terminal apps like termux supplement the phone keyboard with a pane atop it with tab,ctrl,pipe buttons. Should be usable.

>there isn't really any good IDE, or even editor out there.

Vim and others are available as packages in gnuroot, etc. A shell and editor split with tmux should work.

Still very uncomfortable programming on a phone ofcourse.

Re: Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

#72

Post by TheRealmccoy » Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 8:59 AM UTC

mrfregg wrote: post #71

cheeze wrote: post #10

You can learn how to program from books. Phone should be no problem either. But it is going to be much, much harder to learn how to program anything with any decent level of complexity. Writing everything in a single file? Sure. Writing a java app which has 20 classes? Sounds like hell. And while linux terminal isn't really programming, sending key combos like ^d sounds terrible on a phone keyboard. Something else th…

>sending key combos like ^d sounds terrible on a phone keyboard. Terminal apps like termux supplement the phone keyboard with a pane atop it with tab,ctrl,pipe buttons. Should be usable. >there isn't really any good IDE, or even editor out there. Vim and others are available as packages in gnuroot, etc. A shell and editor split with tmux should work. Still very uncomfortable programming on a phone ofcourse.

This is about learning how to program solely on an android phone.

the assignment i believe would not require typing very long and complex programs and may be if they do, i would try to do it in batches.

Once a person has learnt programming on a smartphone, she could graduate to work on an actual laptop or desktop.

But this is an experiment or a research project kind of thing, and it is too early to count the chickens.

Re: Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

#73

Post by TheRealmccoy » Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 9:04 AM UTC

Jonathanks wrote: post #68

TheRealmccoy wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

specially in crisis torn places, one finds only gloom and sadness; the future looks dark and bleak, if a pedagogical approach is found where kids and youngsters can learn on mobile itself, something like Programming, which could help them in a better future, that could help many. Unfortunates those who are forced to migrate, may be can learn enough to start a new beginning.

I sincerely hope you find something that works. It is a good pursuit. Will it be limited to learning programming only? There are many other skills that will be needed after such crises. One such skill is creative writing to bring the arts back to life (other arts are needed too). Another is story telling, because the story of the events will need to be told, preferably by those who were in the midst of it, not those…

This is one of the first in the series. Post October, I am going to work as a waiter at one of the beach shacks here and based on my experience, I intend to write a novel and also publish my research on "How to get maximum tips, working as a waiter".

Both creative writing and story telling are very close to me, off late I have written 17 short stories, they can be read on https://medium.com/@realmccoy

the stories are numbered.

Re: Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

#74

Post by TheRealmccoy » Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 9:35 AM UTC

TheRealmccoy wrote: post #67

rl3 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a relief. I was really hoping the reason wasn't cost due to some unfortunate circumstance. :) For what it's worth, there's quite a few apps that teach programming or serve as reference. Some of them can run live code inline.

I am currently into voluntary poverty but that does not mean I could get a cheap laptop. I am currently far from my home, where I have a Ubuntu desktop as well as laptop.

Not get a cheap laptop.

Re: Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

#75

Post by ethereal_int » Mon, Jun 12, 2017, 10:16 AM UTC

TheRealmccoy wrote: post #39

slang800 wrote: post #11

You can probably read all the content of the courses on your phone and even run a basic Python/R interpreter on it, but no. Phone keyboards suck for programming and there are a ton of programs you can't run on a phone (like RStudio or Python IDEs). Just get a cheap desktop and keyboard on Craigslist. I've found ones for as little as 20USD. Or you might be able to use a Raspberry Pi, if you're into that.

yes IDEs are not possible. I found one for Python called QPython but not sure how it is. After using some of the desktop IDEs, not sure whether to call it by same name.

Since you're using python and R I'm gonna throw Jupyter (used to be called ipython) into the mix (I'm using it half the time on desktop anyway because notebooks format everything so beautifully). You might also want to install Hacker's Keyboard from the play store so you have access to shift/enter/ctrl, and while I havent personally used it on a phone it should work fine. Here is a random tutorial link http://bretahajek.com/2016/12/jupyter-notebook-opencv-androi...

And using termux+vim is definitely an IDE, but has a pretty damn steep learning curve.