Practice for Programmers. SXSW Insight: Yipit And Ohours Founders On Learning To Code. The Sweat Lodge: 'Idea guys' turned programmers recall the process of learning to code.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Got an idea for a hot new Web app and need a software developer to build it? You may want to consider an alternative: Do it yourself. That's what Nate Westheimer and Vinicius Vacanti did. Both knew next to nothing about coding, but quickly taught themselves the basics, and in less than a year, became lead developers at venture-backed startups.
Westheimer recently created Ohours, an online platform that lets people schedule face-to-face conversations with strangers. How did they do it? Vacanti spent his early days poring over a Python programming book on an extended visit to Brazil. Westheimer, who joked that he's not as smart as Vacanti, recounted his own sweat lodge experience: five grueling days locked in his apartment in the fall of 2010 during which he studied an online tutorial book from the time he woke up until he went to sleep.
SEO and Wordpress. Tutorials. Design. Ruby. Python. Tech Tuesday (Great Primers) Apps. Compete Against Other Players Learning To Code With Treehouse’s Code Race. As part of the ongoing trend of coding literacy among a more mainstream audience, Treehouse, a startup that teaches people how to program online has developed Code Racer, a game that teaches people how to code by pitting them up against other people also learning how to code, building, appropriately enough, some kind of race car related website.
To start Code Racer either move straight into “Play” or watch a video tutorial with the basics beforehand. Users can play up to four opponents, and can toggle the “Help” button whenever an exercise gets too hard for them. The objective is to be fast, “It’s the game mechanic that makes the game fun,” says Treehouse co-founder Ryan Carson, “You’ll get beat quite a few times as a newbie, but you’ll learn the code along the way.” And yes, you can mute the horrible music by pressing the “Mute music” button at the top of the game. The Treehouse crew built Code Racer in three days and documented the entire process on Vimeo (below). Code Hero Is A Game That Teaches You To Make Games. “Shoot code here!”
Don’t you wish all programming were that easy? You’re working on a huge PHP project for work and you need a dynamic table and all you do is whip out your code gun and shoot some into your IDE. Now you can, at least in a limited sense. Code Hero is a Kickstarter project that teaches you to program games using Unity or Javascript. You can build games using ready-made building blocks and progress through increasingly difficult levels as you become a gaming master alongside your guide, a robotic Ada Lovelace.
The Unity game engine that Code Hero teaches you how to code in is the ultimate indie game development powerhouse. . $42 gets you a pre-order of the game and lesser donations get you sneak peeks and discounts on the finished product. Project Page. Intro to Programming » Chapter 1 » Thinking Like a Programmer.