Exercism.io – Become a better programmer

http://educationware.net/exercism-io-become-a-better-programmer/

by Reddichu • 11 years ago

149 31 11 years ago

educationware.net

omgtehlion3• 11 years ago

Download some blob from the internet, then run it?

No, thanks

aprdm• 11 years ago

At least their code is on github and you can inspect..

wongarsu3• 11 years ago

Yeah. But reviewing 1900 lines of code before I've even seen a single one of their exercises? That doesn't sound like fun. I would be far more willing to run their app if I could try the actual service first.

kytrinyx2• 11 years ago

Fair enough. You can also build the binary yourself, since it's all open source. https://github.com/exercism/cli/releases

omgtehlion3• 11 years ago

Looks like it just downloads/uploads plain data to the web service. I thought that in this age of internet technologies a web site would be enough.

cgag• 11 years ago

programs who needs em

ClashTheBunny2• 11 years ago

It was originally designed as more of a mentoring platform, so you would be led through it by a friend that knows the process. It's easier to trust a friend than a code review for a non programmer. It's also easier on the friend to be able to download just one binary and start mentoring than for her to have to find a bunch of requirements just to get the exercise.

It's enough to have to get all of the language's requirements installed...

menzoic• 11 years ago

whats the purpose of a desktop app for this?

MadcapJake3• 11 years ago

There's no desktop app. There's a CLI, a collection of problems and their respective tests, and a website for some collaborative code review.

kytrinyx2• 11 years ago

The CLI is easier to integrate into a normal development workflow, than clicking buttons, dragging files, or copy/pasting code to get the code into the browser.

I guess this supposes that "normal" means somewhere near the command-line, which might not be true for all developers.

ics2• 11 years ago

If you mean CLI by desktop app, then... It strips out one of the most annoying parts of doing exercises for people who already have tools and like them... navigating to a website, using some crappy browser editor, file browser, and all that. No copy/paste.

This is the workflow:

    Ask for a new [language] exercise (it selects the next one for you to work on and downloads a test file and readme)
    Work on exercise locally in whatever environment you want
    Submit exercise and fetch the next one

sergiotapia• 11 years ago

Extremely confusing website, are the exercises somewhere on the website or do I need to download an application or are the exercises on Github or what?

The screenshots make it look like CodeAcademy with messages/comments, but I can't find the exercises anywhere.

MadcapJake3• 11 years ago

Lots of info on using exercism.io at http://help.exercism.io/

yellowapple• 11 years ago

If you're just interested in the exercises without all the code review shenanigans that the site + CLI tool offer, they're all available on https://github.com/exercism (all the ones named `x$language`).

ClashTheBunny2• 11 years ago

One of the issues is that it was originally designed as a mentoring platform, so you would be led through it by a friend that knows the process. The help link is very good for some languages, but could use some love for other languages.

sinatra• 11 years ago

When I saw that you expected users to join with their GitHub accounts, I assumed that the exercises would be made available on GitHub and the submissions would also happen through GitHub (on a user specified repo).

ics2• 11 years ago

You can find the exercises on GitHub (see https://github.com/exercism/xhaskell for example). They have their own workflow for the review process ("nitpicks" and "iterations") which could be grafted onto GitHub issues and pull requests, but it's not necessary and might just make beginners more self conscious about their stuff being open to anyone on GitHub.

llamataboot2• 11 years ago

exercism.io has been an amazing tool to improve my Ruby skills (I can't speak to any other languages yet) although it seems that nitpicks have become a bit on the light side lately.

I'd challenge anyone to pick a language they are semi-comfortable in or a brand new-language and do a month of exercism exercises, refactoring as you get comments, and then moving onto the next exercise.

Even 15 minutes of code practice a day goes a long way.

llamataboot2• 11 years ago

and I should say, don't forget to critique your peers' code as well (gently and respectfully) as the site points out, reading and critiquing code is just as useful practice in getting better at coding as writing code.

wongarsu3• 11 years ago

For anybody who wants to take a look at the types of exercises they have: all the exercises are on github [1]

[1] https://github.com/exercism/x-common

masters3d• 11 years ago

I practically learned Swift by doing the first available exercises. (12 or so) when I ran out of exercises I started to implement new ones by taking the test cases from the ruby track (most similar to Apple's XCTest). Check out the available tracks http://synopsis.exercism.io/ Next I am exited about practicing Rust!

fallat• 11 years ago

You know, at first I found this was really good, but after trying it for a little I just completely forgot about it. Is it as good as everyone says? From the comments so far it makes me want to try it out again.

RadioactiveMan• 11 years ago

I really enjoyed it. It was pretty fun to see everyone else's submissions and read their comments. I also like the command-line interface. No GUI or web garbage to muck with to fetch or submit exercises.

placeybordeaux• 11 years ago

What is up with this blog spam? Especially with that link to yet another bookmarking site at the bottom...

aeykie• 11 years ago

You know what'd be a cool website/application? A front end to all these 'learn-to-code' things. Like how Mint is a front end to multiple bank's websites I could have one account that interfaces into project euler, rosalind, exercism, etc grabs exercises and checks them.

Exercism.io – Become a better programmer

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