Talk:Coding Tutor
Hackety hack is amazing. One of the most amazing things about it is its interactivity. I suggest that by going with C/C++, you will inevitably lose some of that immediate feedback. Python, on the other hand is made to work in a shell.
Besides, python is a much better language for beginners - with real power and expressiveness, it still keeps a simple, easy-to-read syntax. And there's less housekeeping - a C hello world is inevitably a majority of stuff that a beginner won't understand - a python "print 'hello world'" is much more gentle.
And one final argument - if you use python, it will work with my own proposed source-code translating thingy. What good is an amazing tutorial stuck in English, if the majority of XO users will speak other languages?
I could go on. Heck, the XO doesn't even ship with automake etc.
Honestly, I can't even imagine this coming out good in C, whereas with Python you could hope to rival Hackety Hack's sublimeness.
Homunq 17:00, 29 March 2008 (EDT)
This software seems to be very useful and successful in the future given it makes learning easy and simple. An API or development kit can be created for the help of community members allowing them to create their own tutorials and submit making this tutor reach consummation.This development kit will also widen the prospects of this software to be implemented for all languages.Such tutorials will make learning really easy and efficient.
pscoe2 17:00, 30 March 2008 (EDT)
Hi, Thanks for the valuable responses & comments. I think the idea of using Python as the tutorial language appeals to me too. It can have two modes for the sake of it. Which can be lets say two kinds of tutorials. As the initial structure of the application will be developed in the first month or so, the addition of tutorials will not be a humongous task, and with the help of community members can be done easily.
As far as addition of Bityi is concerned in the software. It seems like a great idea. Coding in Spanish or for that matter most languages apart from English seems cool enough. This could be added later as you finish your product and develop an external API or library to use your program.
For the development kit, I think it can be added as an extensibility feature of the software, which can be added as the program matures.
I have edited the Idea page, please refer to it.
A very good future prospect of this project possible could be an editor cum compiler which compilers files of all major languages with tutorials concerning each one of them. Also we must not restrict ourselves on one tutorial per language as they may increase owing to additions from the open source world. The one to learn will get to choose from the tutorials as to which one he/she wants to learn from.
It would be good for you to have a more specific comparison with Hackety Hack. How do you think why did it? What would you do the same? What would you do differently?
Homunq 13:31, 31 March 2008 (EDT)
Hi! I have edited the Summary & Description of this project involving comparison of this software with the Hackety Hack software & Pippy Activity for XO. I wish to know from experienced developers at OLPC whether it will be fruitful to extend Pippy for this project or it will be better to take ideas from Pippy and implement a new self-contained activity.