
CodeTips – Learn to programme, with little or no prior experience - algodaily
https://www.codetips.co.uk/
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sleavey
Semi-related, pedantic remark on the title: in British English we commonly use
the word "programme" in place of "program" for e.g. TV programmes and concert
programmes. However, even in British English the correct form for a computer
program is "program".

~~~
DonaldFisk
I have a copy of A Guide to Programming the National - Elliott 803 Electronic
Digital Computer, and it spells it "programme" throughout, but that was
written back in 1962. However, I haven't seen it spelt that way in the last 40
years or so.

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bazzargh
there's something very messed up with the organisation here. I tried two
articles as entry points to see if this would be good for some of my nephews
an nieces; the first was the first article in the 'Beginner' tag, which turns
out to be:

[https://www.codetips.co.uk/what-is-a-switch-
statement/](https://www.codetips.co.uk/what-is-a-switch-statement/)

 _In previous articles we 've discussed the if statement..._ what previous
articles? So, back to the front page to find a starting point. "FizzBuzz", "An
Introduction to Coding Challenges", "An interview with Kevin Ball", "Arrays
and loops with Javascript"...then finally one that seems like it might be the
entry point:

[https://www.codetips.co.uk/writing-your-first-javascript-
pro...](https://www.codetips.co.uk/writing-your-first-javascript-programme/)

 _If you 've made it to this article you should have read the JavaScript
Introduction, and be familiar with variables and data-types._ wait, what?

There seems to be no guided course here, or even a way in each article to get
to the previous article, when clearly a lot of these assume prior knowledge
(there is, but it's right at the end of the article, some of which are pages
long).

This could really do with a 'New readers start here', and put the navigation -
even the fact that there _are_ previous articles - up top in each article.

~~~
omisnomis
Hey,

I'm the CodeTips founder/owner, and I'm grateful for your feedback.

I'd like to get this to a position that your niece and nephew are able to use
it, so if you're willing to continue the discussion that would be great.

Just to address your concerns....

\- Where I have referenced previous articles, they are linked. For example the
`if` reference is a link, that will take you to the article explaining that
concept. I just checked the articles you mentioned, and the links are there
and working.

\- you're absolutely right that the articles are from latest - oldest. It
wasn't necessarily built to be a "course", but I can see why the structure
could be confusing. The balance is not having to make returning users scroll
to the bottom to find new content, perhaps I could add a button that allows
the user to sort the articles as they want to see them?

~~~
dannydfowler
It sounds like they would like a "start here" link, not having to click random
articles and follow the rabbit-hole back to the beginning - that's all.

~~~
omisnomis
That's fair. The issue with a "start here" page is the site is not designed to
be a journey necessarily.

Obviously all the beginner articles are first, but then you have different
language articles, serverless articles, intermediate articles etc. You could
take any of those paths.

Does that make sense?

~~~
bradley_taunt
I think a very simple solution is to use categories. Tag articles under things
like "beginner", "intermediate" etc. Don't be afraid to use multiple
categories and group article sets together.

Simple change but it would make huge payoffs UX-wise.

Edit: I wasn't very clear. I realize you have those top level tags already,
but I was referring to further group articles that "flow" into each other.
That way you can have a "journey" without actually having one :)

~~~
omisnomis
Thanks for the feedback! Are you able to share any examples of where a
different tag would work better?

~~~
bradley_taunt
Just a quick thought example would be something like:

Article Title Tagged: Beginner, JavaScript, Variables

So in this example the user knowns that it's a beginner set > focused on
JavaScript > specific to variables

Maybe oversimplistic, but it's just a concept.

