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nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: Programming

If you want to do visual programming, check out the Processing languange (http://processing.org) as well as Hackety-Hack (http://hackety-hack.com), which is a Ruby Environment for kids of any age to learn how to program.

Hackety-Hack.com also has a StackOverflow-like Question/Answer page for people new to programming to get assistance.

Programming is fun and rewarding, but it's also one of the most challenging mental exercises you can submit yourself to. Be prepared to feel discouraged once and a while but don't let it sink in. Anyone with drive can learn to program!

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: Twitter Aquires Whisper Systems

One of the things Whisper had was a method of encrypting SMS messages so they still fit in an SMS message, perhaps Twitter is hoping to take advantage of that?

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: RoR

As someone who teaches beginning Ruby and Rails workshops. I often find the limiting factor in getting to where students want to go is comfort with Ruby itself, Rails automates so many of the early details that knowing a little bit more about what Ruby is doing can be phenomenally enabling.

By all means learn both at once, but stay just a little ahead in your Ruby skills.

The Ruby Koans is great for solidifying Ruby concepts glossed over in Rails.

http://rubykoans.com

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: Ask HN: What is your development setup?

- Standing station (technically sit-stand but I never sit). - Imprint Runner floor mat - Macbook Pro 8GB, 2.5GHz Core i7, SSD - 25inch Asus Monitor - Das Keyboard Ultimate (recently switch to silent after complaints from coworkers) - Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse (a good mouse is a weighted mouse) - Reasonably crappy Sennheiser headphones - Vim and iTerm in full screen, occasionally switch to X/XMonad+urxvt when I start missing proper window managers.

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: Ask HN: I think My code isn't Good enough

It's constant, almost everyone experiences it. Best thing to do is look at some really old code you wrote and realize how far you've come. After that, write more code, read more code, write more code. Programmers all want to be better, this drive helps us become so, but it also drastically diminishes our ability to be content with our current situation. If you really want to see how far you've come. Find someone who reminds you of yourself and mentor them. It's much easier to perceive change in others than change in ourselves. Watching mentees progress reminds you of when you underwent the very same realization and helps you become more aware of liminal points in your programming journey.

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: CoffeeScript. An Outsider Opinion

You're absolutely right, I spent most of the past three years writing Java, C++, C, and C# and they all use semicolons and I certainly forgot about them whilst coding in those langs. But the penalty is in transitioning between languages that use or don't use those features. When I'm writing in C and the like, I tend to stick within that language. But with JavaScript and Ruby, I do a lot more context switching back and forth. Anything I can do to reduce the penalty of moving between one and the other is worth doing in my opinion. Especially when it doesn't affect the final result.

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: CoffeeScript. An Outsider Opinion

thanks Jeremy, do you mind if I insert your comment in the main body of my post?

I am still a student of computer science and in my university's Java encapsulated worldview they've not discussed the finer points of non class-based OOP. I will do more research on the subject.

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: CoffeeScript. An Outsider Opinion

I'm still using Javascript at the end of the day, I'm just doing so via an interface that I find more readable and writeable. I don't see it as much different than letting a minifier optimize my javascript rather than writing it that way by hand.

nuclearsandwich | 14 years ago | on: CoffeeScript. An Outsider Opinion

I see your point. Punctuation is a vector for meaning and clarity but is Javascript's syntax any more informative than Coffeescript's? It isn't in my observation. It certainly offers more flexibility in style, but why would you need it? I can't conceive of a reason besides minification.

Your comparison with novels I think is a bit skewed. Literature has a whole different set of readability enhancements such as fully justified text, variable-width fonts, as well as margins and padding. Punctuation in English has been evolving for centuries as people settle on the minimum needed to convey the full meaning as unambiguously as possible. But English also has many many more sets of valid (as well as various definitions of valid) constructs than Javascript does and thus may require a more robus set of punctuation.

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