Merry Christmas, HN. Hackety Hack 1.0 is here.(blog.hackety-hack.com)
blog.hackety-hack.com
Merry Christmas, HN. Hackety Hack 1.0 is here.
http://blog.hackety-hack.com/post/2457961910/merry-christmas-and-a-1-0-announcement
9 comments
Thanks! Please let me know what you think once you've played with it for a bit.
Hi, I tried to post this to the "Ask a question" form but got an internal server error in response. I was going to say:
Hey, any sign of a Linux version of 1.0? If some porting work needs to be done, could you describe it? I'd be willing to help. Thanks!
-- cjb.
Hey, any sign of a Linux version of 1.0? If some porting work needs to be done, could you describe it? I'd be willing to help. Thanks!
-- cjb.
Hmmm. Oh, you know what. Were you logged in? I think the code might have some problems with anonymous entries, I'll look it over tonight.
There isn't a single package Linux version, but you can make a Shoes on Linux and then run the .shy file. We'd love to have some help with a Linux port, though... send me an email, and we'll talk about it. That'd be awesome.
There isn't a single package Linux version, but you can make a Shoes on Linux and then run the .shy file. We'd love to have some help with a Linux port, though... send me an email, and we'll talk about it. That'd be awesome.
No, wasn't logged in.
I thought I'd start out by just getting it running, but I'm pretty stuck at a Shoes window with "undefined method `font' for (Object):Object".
I thought I'd start out by just getting it running, but I'm pretty stuck at a Shoes window with "undefined method `font' for (Object):Object".
Hm. Strange. How'd you get your Shoes? Did you compile it?
No, grabbed the latest Ubuntu package. I'll try compiling now.
Oh, my. That is about two years old. Team Shoes has started poking at the Debian beaurocracy to get that fixed, but it'll take a while.
Please send me an email if you have Shoes problems. I've been trying to improve those docs...
Please send me an email if you have Shoes problems. I've been trying to improve those docs...
Hey everyone-
I actually have a fair amount to say about this release, but I've been burning the candle at both ends for the last few weeks putting this together, so that'll be a post for another day. It's not perfect, but it's pretty solid. As always, feedback is really appreciated.
I'll boil it down to one sentence: It's really hard to apply YAGNI and actually build an MVP. Here it is.
I actually have a fair amount to say about this release, but I've been burning the candle at both ends for the last few weeks putting this together, so that'll be a post for another day. It's not perfect, but it's pretty solid. As always, feedback is really appreciated.
I'll boil it down to one sentence: It's really hard to apply YAGNI and actually build an MVP. Here it is.
Congrats, Steve!
Would HacketyHack be good for a smart 10-year-old who's new to programming?
Would HacketyHack be good for a smart 10-year-old who's new to programming?
I started with BASIC when I was 7, so I'd say yes, absolutely. The four lessons walk you through a tour of what Hackety can do, the concepts of programming via LOGO, basic programming in Ruby, and then simple things with Shoes. I've got a bunch of examples, too... you can check them out on GitHub directly, and see how you feel about them:
Lessons: https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/tree/master/lesso...
Samples: https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/tree/master/sampl...
The biggest thing is that it's just Ruby, with a bunch of libraries. I still need to come up with a good solution for STDIN and STDOUT, but it's all just Ruby 1.9.1.
Lessons: https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/tree/master/lesso...
Samples: https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/tree/master/sampl...
The biggest thing is that it's just Ruby, with a bunch of libraries. I still need to come up with a good solution for STDIN and STDOUT, but it's all just Ruby 1.9.1.
It's nice that you have a very easy API to make lessons, maybe someone can port _why's poignant guide to ruby as a Interactive Fiction to hackety hack.
Q: is there a way to add pictures?
Q: is there a way to add pictures?
Yep, I include a picture of Matz in the Ruby one: https://github.com/hacketyhack/hacketyhack/blob/master/lesso...
You can also just use a URL from the web, and the first time the program runs, it downloads and caches it.
You can also just use a URL from the web, and the first time the program runs, it downloads and caches it.
Congratulations Steve! Great to see progress being made =)
Thanks Scott. I'll get a port over to Brown Shoes as soon as it's ready. ;)
I'll boil it down to one sentence: It's really hard to apply YAGNI and actually build an MVP.
I never quite understood YAGNI, because it seems illogical to always take that stance. Sometimes, you're gunna need it. Say YAGNI to everything, and you'll never create meaningful reusable abstractions. Other times, sure, you might be jumping into creating abstractions that don't turn out as useful as one would have hoped, but that's a decision which has to be made on a case-by-case basis.
I never quite understood YAGNI, because it seems illogical to always take that stance. Sometimes, you're gunna need it. Say YAGNI to everything, and you'll never create meaningful reusable abstractions. Other times, sure, you might be jumping into creating abstractions that don't turn out as useful as one would have hoped, but that's a decision which has to be made on a case-by-case basis.
Congrats, Steve. I know you've been working really hard on this lately. I'm lucky enough to know Steve personally, and I can say it would be hard for anyone to find another person as dedicated to a project as him.
Happy Holidays buddy!
Happy Holidays buddy!
Sounds like a great project.
I do wonder why I can’t find any “about” page or reference to _why, whose work was so clearly inspirational, at least?
I do wonder why I can’t find any “about” page or reference to _why, whose work was so clearly inspirational, at least?
There's no about page because I totally re-did everything on the site in the last two days, and I'm missing some stuff. See the "MVP" comment below... he's still #1 in the README.
Secondly... _why is gone. He's dearly missed... but he left. He wants to be left alone. I don't think that saying "_why _why _why" all the time is going to help repair the whole he left in our collective hearts.
Secondly... _why is gone. He's dearly missed... but he left. He wants to be left alone. I don't think that saying "_why _why _why" all the time is going to help repair the whole he left in our collective hearts.
Giving it a try right now, and first thoughts:
1) icons on the left are too small, they don't match the overall size of other things in the system (they're smaller than text, for instance). Also makes it harder to identify them, especially with the rainbow background.
2) "Menu" button on mouse-over says "index", and while in the index it really needs a "back" button to go back to where you were. I hit the "x", and closed the entire tutorial - maybe that should be the back button?
3) Crashed it after the first example, and now it crashes on launch (ouch). Crash report after the launch-death: http://pastebin.com/inSUPesY next launch worked, couldn't find where it stored its preferences to clear them, so that's good... I can post my console logs if you like.
All in all though, looks pretty good! I'll probably try it on a couple non-programmers, and see what they think. If you see this, do you have a preferred mode of contact for that info?
1) icons on the left are too small, they don't match the overall size of other things in the system (they're smaller than text, for instance). Also makes it harder to identify them, especially with the rainbow background.
2) "Menu" button on mouse-over says "index", and while in the index it really needs a "back" button to go back to where you were. I hit the "x", and closed the entire tutorial - maybe that should be the back button?
3) Crashed it after the first example, and now it crashes on launch (ouch). Crash report after the launch-death: http://pastebin.com/inSUPesY next launch worked, couldn't find where it stored its preferences to clear them, so that's good... I can post my console logs if you like.
All in all though, looks pretty good! I'll probably try it on a couple non-programmers, and see what they think. If you see this, do you have a preferred mode of contact for that info?
This looks really cool, but there seems to be a problem with character sets. All of the text within the program consists of '◻', even on the welcome screen and within the editor. This occurs on 10.6.4. Hopefully I haven't missed something obvious. EDIT: I managed to run a program, and the text in the dialog windows looks fine.
Hm, this is odd. I'm also on 10.6.4... and I include the fonts inside, so that shouldn't be a problem... Hrm.
EDIT: Are you using US default stuff? There's a known issue involving foreign keyboard settings... I wonder if it's similar.
EDIT: Are you using US default stuff? There's a known issue involving foreign keyboard settings... I wonder if it's similar.
Maybe I can shed some light on this. I accidentally launched Hackety Hack inside the Disk Image and no characters showed up. The copy on my harddrive runs without a problem. I just tried again and it seems like the bug is reproducible. It seems like the easiest solution would be to just zip Hackety Hack instead of using .dmg ;-) (OS X 10.6.5)
Finally, some programming tutorials I can understand! I'm only sort of joking. Actually I'd love to see something like this for languages I find tough to understand, such as Haskell (I know there are some resources out there...).
Hackety Hack! (Don't talk back.)
I'm downloading it now, and I'm looking forward to checking it out later today if I get the chance.