Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Other => Topic started by: Keoni29 on September 05, 2014, 05:44:26 pm
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Should everyone learn how to code? Everyone walks around with computers in their pockets, but nobody knows what makes these devices tick. People don't know where software comes from anymore. When something has blinky lights and beepy sounds it's cool, but if it calculates the square root of pi in a 20 byte program it's... interesting I guess?
What are your opinions?
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Totally agree. In the time of C64 and DOS computers, people at least understood why their PCs froze if they let it do too much, and they understood file systems and stuff. Nowadays people scare away from anything that doesn't look like a box with flashy icons on it.
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Well, everyone should at least know what a computer is and how it works. You probably don't need to know how to code for most people, but it should be encouraged, probably just for learning logic, much like how we have philosophy courses.
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Not everybody knows how a car engine is working.
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I don't feel like everyone has to be able code themselves, but at least know how it's done.
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Nope. Else everyone should do sports, learn how a car engine works, play every kind of video game that exists in the world, make out with a girl daily, play music, manage a company finances and politics. It all is about your tastes and ability to learn certain things in particular: If you don't like to code or just don't get it at all no matter how hard you try and get helped, then I don't see why you should force yourself to do so.
I think it doesn't hurt to try, though, in case you like it, and try harder so that you don't spend 3 years doing just quadratic solvers.
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It it not the point to be able to code flawlessly or at all, but just understand the basic concept.
If everyone would do that I'll try to understand how engines work, how to play videogames, make out with girls(daily?), play music, manage a company finances and politics.
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how to play videogames
This includes NBA Elite 2011, Custer's Revenge, E.T, SNES Super Hockey, Shaq Fu, Action 52, Call of Duty, that one horse riding game, bass fishing games, DDR, RPGs, platformers, everything (regardless of the quality and genre).
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how to play videogames
This includes NBA Elite 2011, Custer's Revenge, E.T, SNES Super Hockey, Shaq Fu, Action 52, Call of Duty, that one horse riding game, bass fishing games, DDR, RPGs, platformers, everything (regardless of the quality and genre).
Keoni29 wasn't trying to say they should learn every language of programming. Just that they should have a basic sense of how programming works. So I think just a general knowledge, and a bit of experience with some different video games, would be considered comparable.
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Oh I know that. But I was more saying that if everyone in the world should be required to learn the basics of coding regardless of if they hate computers and electronics, then it's kind of unfair when people aren't required to learn to do sports and forced to get a girlfriend.
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Oh I know that. But I was more saying that if everyone in the world should be required to learn the basics of coding regardless of if they hate computers and electronics, then it's kind of unfair when people aren't required to learn to do sports and forced to get a girlfriend.
Maths
I know some people who have a basic understanding of how computers work and they are interested in learning how to write programs for it. I am always glad to help these people get started. Sometimes they give up after a while, but some persist.
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Oh, then I guess it would be better to get people to learn maths instead of actual programming. Maths are pretty much essential in life, while programming is not. For example, a soccer player might need some minimal math knowledge to perfect his play and strategy, but I doubt he'll need to learn how For, While and Repeat work in order to score a goal.
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I didn't really learn how to code in high school (or at least not in the official lessons), bit I did got a few introductionary lessons in Game Maker (the drag&drop part, not the scripting part). I think that they should do this in every school. It isn't really programming, but at least it shows that it's not that hard to 'get computers to listen to you', while witouth it, programming is seen as something 'unobtainable' by many, because they don't have the slightest idea of how to start.
With the car engine example: you wouldn't learn how a full car engine works, but you would learn how basic bechanics works (gears and stuff, which they do teach at high schools)
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It depends what part of the world actually. I never learned how gears work in hi school in Quebec. I learned with K'nex :P
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People should have a basic idea of how computers work, even if it's just the idea that at their core computers just run a bunch of instructions in a sequence. I once had an internship to develop a website for a government organization, and I was basically seen as a wizard doing magic. It's kind of a shame.
Also to comment on DJ's earlier post (Tapatalk is horrible for quoting), I would actually like to see a modern resurgence of the "Athenian Man." Having basic competency in a large number of fields is very beneficial. Especially in cross-discipline fields like comp-sci.
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I agree with the tapatalk.
I learned to code because I like tech and joined TSA, and the only interesting thing was calculator robots, which snowballed with my thirst for programming ability (once I found out that I was programming) and I ended up here.
(I ended up teaching my friends how to code and the first thing I learned besides Send() (http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/send) and Get() (http://tibasicdev.wikidot.com/get) was a for loop.[I'm taking about the norland robot part, which was my only contribution to tibd :P)
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make out with a girl daily
Sign me up for this.
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Note: I am a lower-middle-class guy living in an upper-middle-class community, so a lot of what I say here has part to do with the parenting atmosphere present in such communities (at least in the US).
I have a very... different... take on this. People should learn how to use and understand a computer better, yes, but I honestly don't think that it's a good idea to get everyone to learn how to program (notice the non-use of the verb "code," it leaves a foul taste in my mouth), at least, not the way we go about it today. In my town, occasionally I see road signs near the middle and elementary schools that advertise a programming class of sorts (not related to the school at all, mind you). The problem is that the sign is very much aimed at parents. The thing about that is that I feel like parents have been brought up with this notion that their kids need to learn every possible skill at a young age. A lot of times, uninterested kids do things that their parents want them to do, and they hate it. This is no exception. The problem is that these parents push this upon their kids, and there is no choice.
That said, if someone wants to learn how to program at a young age, they should have the resources more easily available. Example: myself, seventh grade. I wanted to learn to program, so I had to research what language I wanted to learn, decided on Java, and bought a book, meant for adults, mind you, for me to learn out of. If there were classes at my school or an out-of-school thing (the thing above didn't exist then) I could do to learn, I would have signed up or asked my parents to sign me up. The thing is that this "programming is a useful skill for everyone" mentality only became a major thing about two years ago. Yes, it existed before, but it wasn't a major, pop-culture, "thing," per-se, until about two years go.
Which brings me back to the first point: Parents and schools want children to learn everything possible. This is shown everywhere, especially in our school systems. The thing is that not everyone wants to or needs to or (and I use this term loosely. I will explain) can learn to program. When I say "can," I mean that the person would have it learned without much difficulty. Honestly, I hate the push towards "STEM for everyone" because only not everyone has an interest in STEM to begin with. The kid might be the next american novelist, but they still have to go through the classes that are unrelated and boring to them (until college). Not to say that we should have students have a choice in whether or not they should have math and science classes. They should, but it shouldn't be the number one thing that schools push on them if that is not what they want to do.
In addition, pushing everyone to learn how to program slows down the pace at which people who have interest get taught because there are other people holding them back. It's just not fair to those with initiative. In my experience, people who want to learn how to program learn how to program one way or another. People who don't don't. It should stay that way.
And think about it, programming is just another form of math (it's logic, after all :P). Just let students learn that instead, oh wait, they already do. The problem with that is that there's a "one size fits all" mold on that, and it just kills me. Accelerate the students who can be accelerated as far as they can go, for crying out loud!
I guess my point is that STEM/Programming should be pushed not as "everyone should learn all the things," but should be pushed as "everyone should have the resources available to learn all the things."
Note: This may seem a bit ranty and at points not coherent, but that's the gist of it :P
EDIT: Yes, I know this is about learning programming and not about how it works, but I find this relevant anyways :P
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Talking about resources, there is still the issue that certain people can still not afford a computer or mobile device. Granted, you can buy a computer at a pawn shop but they are not always available and often the computer selection is pretty terrible (try to make a 1080 60 FPS 3D game on a Pentium 4). Their alternative is to code on smaller devices or such old computer to learn, but when the time comes to venture into the real programming industry they are screwed.
Around 1999-2001, Quebec government decided to subsidise jobless families with $500 rebates on computer purchases back when computers were still over $1000 no matter their power, but even then it was still not enough for people to afford such expensive purchase. That program is now gone and computer prices dropped like mad but they're still pretty high for some people. Try to save money to buy a $400 computer when your monthly revenue is $1000 a month (the case for many monoparental families), with a rent bill of $650 a month and having to feed two kids.
I personally did not buy my own computer until July 2005. Before hand, I had one donated to me in 2004 and it was a Pentium II 350 MHz.