
Code School now open to the public - acrum
http://www.codeschool.com
======
falcolas
Doesn't it seem to anyone else that there's more than a little astroturfing
going on here?

Many positive commenters in this thread have 1 karma and no other posts, and
this link has shown up in no less than 3 front page links as of this writing.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2354776>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2354830>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2355091>

~~~
acrum
FWIW, no "astroturfing" from me. I got the e-mail that they launched and
submitted the URL, because I've been looking forward to taking a look at it
(didn't get a beta invite). Haven't used it much yet, but I like the concept,
and to me the execution looks promising.

------
j_baker
"An interactive online marketplace where you can learn to code directly in the
browser"

Is it just me or does something seem ... off about this blurb? For whatever
reason, "interactive online marketplace" just rubs me the wrong way, but I
can't quite put my finger on why.

~~~
neverdull
It's the word "marketplace" that sounds off to my ear - too buzzwordy, and not
descriptive of what's on offer. "Environment" might sound better?

The words "interactive" and "online" are fair descriptions of the service, but
essentially made redundant by the phrase "directly in the browser".

------
BvS
75 US$ (final price for Rails Best Practices) for 5 videos of 10-15 minutes
seem a little expensive. Are the non video parts worth the money?

~~~
PStamatiou
Try Rails for Zombies (free) to get an idea of the quality. I find it worth
it.

------
eli
I see "Featured Courses" on the homepage, and a "My Courses" link that
requires a login, but no way to see any other courses. I take it that means
the four I see are the only ones available/scheduled right now?

~~~
j3
Yep. The HTML and jQuery courses are in post-production now and will be
released soon. From there, we're shooting for at least one course per month.

------
twymer
Rails for Zombies was very well done, but not too long into it I found myself
going straight to the end, looking at what I needed to do and then clicking
through the video to find to the parts where he actually got to the guts of
what it was about and how to do it.

Overall it's a neat idea and the guys at EnvyLabs are great but I couldn't see
myself paying for more.

------
peteysd
Rails for Zombies is brilliant. Very high-quality stuff, and the website
design is beautiful. I can't wait to see their JS courses.

~~~
nathanwdavis
I sincerely hope they don't do a course on Website performance or page asset
loading. Turn on Firebug and refresh the site, and you'll see no script/css
combining, lots of un-minified js, and a total download of more than half a
megabyte on the homepage. It feels slow too.

~~~
petercooper
Successful entrepreneurs release and sell first, refine later.

~~~
mquander
The courses claim to teach programming, not entrepreneurship.

~~~
smarterchild
They're in the business of coding first, the coding of business second.

------
Jabbles
Can you claim that something is on sale the moment you release it?

(A genuine question, I thought there may have been a requirement to note that
something is an "introductory offer", but there are almost certainly different
laws that apply to online sales.)

~~~
acangiano
You can if it's a special "launch price" which will be increased after a given
amount of time.

------
molecularbutter
looks great, any plans for courses on Objective C, Cocoa, iOS/Mac development?

~~~
j3
I'm thinking about doing a MacRuby course this summer. That's at least in your
direction.

~~~
stcredzero
You are going to have a Ruby focus, then?

~~~
j3
Most of the people involved are Ruby people, but we'll look to bring in new
authors as the site grows.

------
JesseDearing
Loved Rails for Zombies and I can't wait for the others to open up. The format
that Envy Labs has for online learning is really just brilliant.

------
Stratego
Tested this and learned a ton of from the Rails Best Practices course, whereas
it usually takes me a while to learn how to refactor code properly using a new
language or framework or even to care.

Definitely trickier than Rails for Zombies for people how have used Rails
before but much more rewarding.

------
radioactive21
Looks good, but I'll wait for more refinement of the courses and website.

One thing others have mention and I hope gets attention, is more details are
need for each class. Right now it's like looking at a book with just the title
and back cover. Hard to see if it's for you.

------
dyogenez
Definitely worth it. Went through it a few weeks ago and learned a lot - even
though I've been using Rails for years. It goes into a lot of Rails 3 best
practices too, so helps to make sure you're on the right track there. Really
like the approach they take too -- sometimes writing code from scratch,
sometimes refactoring bad code to best practices.

------
FreshCode
Big 404 after trying to "buy" Rails for Zombies. Hopefully just the HN effect
setting in. Ah, worked after a few tries.

------
nerdyworm
I'd love to see computer science problems explained and solved.

For instance start with a problem like
<http://www.coderloop.com/puzzles/friendsfinder> and then show various
approaches and solutions to it.

Just a thought.

~~~
j3
That's a cool idea. In the future we'll build the capability for bigger
"projects" rather than individual exercises. Then we'd be able to solve
problems like this the right way.

------
sboak
I haven't watched any Code School videos yet, but learning to code by video
has always been my method of choice. I've been using the (awesome) videos from
Lynda.com for years now and have always found them concise and helpful with
really good content.

~~~
Mafana0
Second that. Video lessons are great, I'm a happy customer of both Lynda and
Total Training. What really helped me to start learning web development is
their ASP.NET lessons.

------
PStamatiou
Been using Code School for a while now (beta) and absolutely love it. Just
posted my thoughts on it here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2355091>

------
danneu
I haven't used it, but due to some of the comments in this thread, some people
should check out PeepCode.com

------
omnivore
I like the concept a great deal. Just the sort of presentation needed for me
to get fence sitters off of it.

------
dev_Gabriel
Just registered and I'll try Rails for Zombies(never programmed Ruby/Rails
before).

The design is pretty cool.

------
MattyBE
This is awesome. I've been wanting to try ruby and get better at coding in
general.

------
BasDirks
First time the graphic designer in me went "WOW" after clicking an HN link.

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jeffreymcmanus
Are there live human instructors behind this or is it just videos?

~~~
gte910h
Videos with tests that check your answers.

~~~
jeffreymcmanus
So, no way to ask questions, then. Hm.

~~~
gte910h
The course material really doesn't require it.

Try the free rails for zombies module. You can do just a bit of it to get the
style.

<http://railsforzombies.org/>

------
marknutter
That is one gorgeous site.

