
CodeCombat (YC W14) Wants You To Learn To Code By Playing Games - gsaines
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/19/yc-backed-codecombat-wants-you-to-learn-to-code-by-playing-games/
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stackcollision
I think there are a lot of services that are trying to put their own unique
spin on how to teach code. My problem is that a lot of them seem to miss the
point. What this is teaching is basic syntax and how to understand sequential
execution. But being able to write code is not the same thing as being able to
program, in much that same way that being able to write English is not the
same thing as storytelling.

The game looks like fun and I'm sure it'll be able to spark the interest of a
bunch of young people. Once they get out of this, hopefully they'll look to
other sources to learn more in-depth skills. But IMHO services like this need
to stop advertising themselves as "Learn to code", and instead admit what they
are, which is something to pique the curiosity of a newbie and get them
started on their own path. That's a noble goal in itself, but passing off the
absolute basics as knowing how to "program" could be dangerous.

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griffinmahon
Question from a naive person trying really hard to get into programming: what
are good resources/where should I start, etc?

I've done quite a bit on Codecademy, and I _get_ it, but there are still a lot
of things I am just ignorant of, like _where_ you actually type code (what's a
good source code editor?) and so on.

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rickyc091
That's the problem with a lot of these sites like codeacademy, they walk you
through coding, but they hide a lot of the process.

To answer your question, the editor, etc. depends on what language you're
programming in.

For HTML, all you need is a simple text editor, notepad on windows, textedit
on mac, gedit on windows. Sublime if you want syntax highlighting.

Type in a few lines of code, save it with a .html extension and double click
the file. The offline webpage should open up on your browser.

Javascript is pretty similar, just save the file with a .js extension. You'll
have to make sure the JS file is linked to your HTML file.

I think the best resources are still books if you want to learn to program.
They generally recommend software to use as you work through the book.

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niels_olson
> they walk you through coding, but they hide a lot of the process.

That's what they should be doing. Having been trying to teach myself this
stuff since photo.net and Ars Digita were hot, I can tell you, I spent 10
years stuck in Windows not knowing where to turn. Then I spent ten years
learning all about everything _around_ programming: editors, OSes, managing
remote servers, languages, what those languages are for, algorithms, half-
adders, little-endian vs big-endian, blah, blah, blah.

And only in the last few years have I really gotten a handle on actually
writing code that _does stuff_.

Now I'm at the point I realize I'm way behind the curve on data structures but
I have to say, I really wish I had been learning about data structures instead
of how Bill Joy developed vi to cope with a slow modem.

Sure, picking up Perl now, I can grab Padre and the Llama book and within a
few exercises branch off on my own and add rewrite them with recursive
functions and pretty interface elements, but I wish I'd been learning about
advanced parsers instead.

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raiph
> Sure, picking up Perl now... but I wish I'd been learning about advanced
> parsers instead.

Fwiw:

Perl 5 is no slouch in the parsing department (via CPAN modules, including
partial backports of some Perl 6 technologies).

Perl 6 directly delivers a powerful but relatively easy-to-use parsing
environment with its composable grammars and rules
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_6_rules)).

~~~
niels_olson
Not sure why someone downvoted you, but no worries. Thanks for the reply.

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bnzelener
Congrats on this article, guys. I hope the YC experience is going well. I got
to watch your office hours at Startup School and was totally inspired. Glad to
see you still killing it!

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gsaines
Thanks bnzelenar, we have really appreciated everyone's support and hope to
continue making lots of forward progress!

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rel
Weren't they the ones that got picked up during startup school office hours?

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chrisa
Yep:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syoqjYLDs48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syoqjYLDs48)

