Everyone Can Program

7 7 12 years ago

joepet• 12 years ago

everyone can be a shoemaker

R_Edward• 12 years ago

Hmmmmm... I have a knee-jerk reaction to initiatives with names like "Everyone can <fill in the blank>." Everyone may benefit from being exposed to the rudiments of whatever activity you're promoting, but it is clearly, objectively, undeniably the case that no, not everyone can program, or dance, or sing, or build a curio cabinet for any personally or professionally meaningful definition of the term.

Now, it is certainly true that any fool can use a computer... Many do! But using one--or even learning by rote how to craft a Hello World program--is a far cry from being able to look at a problem and mentally break it down into computational steps, then build the program up from those steps. Until you get to the point where you're thinking computationally, I'm not convinced you can really call whatever it is your doing "programming."

Maybe I just need to adjust the onion on my belt and go yell at a cloud or two.

justinlloyd• 12 years ago

To paraphrase the film Ratatouille: "Anyone can program. But not everyone should."

beefman2• 12 years ago

"Everyone can read and write but not everyone should"

drcongo• 12 years ago

Everyone Can Create a Campaign to Teach Children to Code.

beefman2• 12 years ago

Yep, including the public school system of Britain, which these folks are trying to support

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25857276

teknologist• 12 years ago

Can everyone write tests instead? We have enough people blindly writing implementation code without adequate testing. I fear for what the world will be like in 20 years if kids are being told to write as much code as they can without spending the time to verify their logic and assumptions.

Everyone Can Program

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