And live coding, as a standalone feature, misses the point.Īlan Perlis wrote, "To understand a program, you must become both the machine and the program." This view is a mistake, and it is this widespread and virulent mistake that keeps programming a difficult and obscure art. JavaScript and Processing are poorly-designed languages that support weak ways of thinking, and ignore decades of learning about learning. to enable programmers to see and understand the execution of their programsĪ live-coding Processing environment addresses neither of these goals.to support and encourage powerful ways of thinking.Thus, the goals of a programming system should be: If a programmer cannot see what a program is doing, she can't understand it. Learning about "for" loops is not learning to program, any more than learning about pencils is learning to draw. Programming is a way of thinking, not a rote skill.It offers a set of tutorials based on the JavaScript and Processing languages, and features a "live coding" environment, where the program's output updates as the programmer types.īecause my work was cited as an inspiration for the Khan system, I felt I should respond with two thoughts about learning: Khan Academy recently launched an online environment for learning to program. Here's a trick question: How do we get people to understand programming?
0 kommentar(er)
