> A live-coding Processing environment addresses neither of these goals. JavaScript and Processing are poorly-designed languages that support weak ways of thinking, and ignore decades of learning about learning. And live coding, as a standalone feature, is worthless.
Woah come on Bret, we're getting there give them a break! I distinctly remember that this was the work of a couple of interns with the help of Resig.
A couple of things - I still don't have live coding for the vast majority of my programming environments - so that little text box is about 10x better than the vim/eclipse + run loop with print statements that most of us use.
Second javascript is brilliant - lazy ways of thinking are brilliant - you will not believe how motivating it is to just get shit on the screen as a learner. I myself have wasted inordinate amounts of time setting up compilers, interpreters, environments, graphics/audio etc. when all I want to do is bloody program the thing in my head. Who cares where the files are? Who cares where the images are? The environment should be designed to get out of my way - not the other way around.
Most importantly of all - javascript is the most forgiving language I have ever seen - and this is gold. There's a reason Google started with python, Twitter with rails, and Facebook started with PHP - no one gives a shit about "strict thinking" or "brutal languages" - that stuff should come way - way later when you actually need it.
Strict languages for learners are a case of premature optimisation. My little brother absolutely loves the new Khan Academy coding environment/system because of the fact that it isn't strict.
Woah come on Bret, we're getting there give them a break! I distinctly remember that this was the work of a couple of interns with the help of Resig.
A couple of things - I still don't have live coding for the vast majority of my programming environments - so that little text box is about 10x better than the vim/eclipse + run loop with print statements that most of us use.
Second javascript is brilliant - lazy ways of thinking are brilliant - you will not believe how motivating it is to just get shit on the screen as a learner. I myself have wasted inordinate amounts of time setting up compilers, interpreters, environments, graphics/audio etc. when all I want to do is bloody program the thing in my head. Who cares where the files are? Who cares where the images are? The environment should be designed to get out of my way - not the other way around.
Most importantly of all - javascript is the most forgiving language I have ever seen - and this is gold. There's a reason Google started with python, Twitter with rails, and Facebook started with PHP - no one gives a shit about "strict thinking" or "brutal languages" - that stuff should come way - way later when you actually need it.
Strict languages for learners are a case of premature optimisation. My little brother absolutely loves the new Khan Academy coding environment/system because of the fact that it isn't strict.