
Code in the Browser with GitHub Classroom - amasad
https://github.blog/2020-05-26-code-in-the-browser-with-github-classroom/
======
chipperyman573
I learned to program years ago in high school. Git was one of the things that
I just never got. I remember used git as a "staging" platform and struggling
so hard to resolve all the problems that kept coming up (I'm sure they were
actually relatively simple to anyone who knows git, like a merge conflict or
detached head or something) so much I eventually wrote a script to use rsync
to copy and paste files that had changed since I last "pushed" to prod. Now
that I understand how it works inside and out, I can appreciate how amazing
git is, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that should (or even could)
be taught to teenagers. I hope github keeps this mainly focused on web IDE
with automatic grading and turn-in instead of trying to get kids to learn Git

~~~
thwarted
> I don't think it's the kind of thing that should (or even could) be taught
> to teenagers.

This makes no sense. It all depends on the goals of the teaching. However,
it's probably more meaningful for more people to be exposed to the
capabilities of version control so they avoid creating one-off home grown
solutions.

There was a time when the joke was that only teenagers knew how to set the
time on the VCR.

~~~
swiley
IME: professional tools are easier to appreciate after implementing them
poorly.

~~~
thwarted
This is true, but I'm referring to the "copy your files and rename them with a
date" or "FINALrev.FromJoe-20200105-Updated-NEW-27" in the filename, not the
bad implementations of tools (the GP comment didn't talk about implementing
git, just about how git works).

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chrisaycock
It's great to see that GitHub is working with repl.it. When GitHub Codespaces
was announced earlier this month, there were some musings that it would hurt
repl.it adoption. It seems that there are lots of choices available.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23092904](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23092904)

------
that_girl
Repl.it is a life-saver. Easy, quick, friendly. I won't be surprised if it
replaces coderpro for interviews. Collab feature is also amazing.

------
tosh
Interesting to see repl.it featured by GitHub. Well deserved and yet
unexpected.

~~~
52-6F-62
Definitely. They've come so far with it, too. Great work on their part!

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Rairden
I just tried repl.it. I don't like it, but am impressed you have access to a
shell (ubuntu, bash).

I tried to delete Main.java, and it won't let you. Fine, so I just erase the
whole text file. Then, I place two separate folders w/ src code in them. Code
compiles fine, but still prints out "Hello, world!".

Buggy. If you use Main.java, you can still have several packages and it all
works, but I don't like that. What I might do is erase Main.java, then you're
forced to manually run your program from their bash shell ($ java MyClass).
And then it works fine.

I also don't like they're on openJDK 11. All the nice stuff is in 12-14 (text
blocks, switch expressions).

~~~
divbzero
Are there online dev environments out there that treat shell as the first-
class citizen? Where the initial screen is just a command prompt _a la_ Linux
without a desktop environment or Windows 3.1 era MS-DOS?

    
    
      $

~~~
amasad
[https://repl.it/languages/bash](https://repl.it/languages/bash)

------
vezycash
Scrimba for classrooms. That's what I want.

~~~
shadycuz
Now that's an amazing coding platform.

------
Already__Taken
Only a matter of time until MS took aim at my former gitlab + google classroom
school. Going to be interesting watching what the frogs do to react.

Git needs a generational ux improvement to see it in early education but I'm
interested to see what (if any) pro education/developer tools trickle down
that far.

------
topherPedersen
I used to teach kids to code and REPL.it's multiplayer mode was the best tool!
It was a little buggy sometimes, but in general collaborative coding tools are
excellent for teaching.

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simonh
Looks like repl.it doesn’t support VB.NET so this is useless for my kids doing
high school computer science, here in the UK. Shame.

~~~
gorgoiler
What’s the tie in to VB? Your exam board? EdExcel (I think) are moving to
online Python, albeit a neutered version with compatible syntax.

~~~
qmmmur
The thing to understand is that ten years of conservative government have
ravaged education and any respect for intellectual integrity. School is about
setting arbitrary exams to prove that any failure of the student is entirely
their own. That's why the university system is inundated with milquetoast
students who behave as strategically as possible when doing any work.

