Show HN: Futurecoder – A free online interactive Python course
futurecoder.io
futurecoder.io
It should work to an extent on a mobile device, but I can't imagine how to make it a good user experience while actually coding. A tablet should be okayish, it's just not optimised for that. Typing code on a phone sounds awful.
For anyone who really wants that I recommend https://grasshopper.app/ to learn on the go while dragging and dropping, but this comes with serious limitations.
Ultimately I don't know what the long term plan is for someone without a desktop device. Do people write full programs on mobile devices? Is it easy enough to install external dependencies? To build and package software for release?
For sure. But I’ve heard of people who literally don’t have money for a computer and who so started coding on their phone.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27903630
It's impressive what some people can achieve under restraints.
Following the recommendation I started to use Pydroid (on Adroid) from the Playstore and even without an external keyboard it's great for little scripts (or exercises) on the go.
I know the goal is to lower the bar to start out. But anyway, I just wonder whether we're going to far that might actually mislead people about how hard it is to program professionally.
- 100% free and open source (https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder), no ads or paid content.
- No account required at any point. You can start instantly. (You can create an account if you want to save your progress online and across devices. Your email is only used for password resets. You can sign up separately for email updates on the home page)
- Runs in the browser using Pyodide (https://pyodide.org/). No servers. Stores user data in firebase.
- 3 integrated debuggers can be started with one click to show what your code is doing in different ways.
- Enhanced tracebacks make errors easy to understand.
- Useful for anyone: You can have the above without having to look at the course. IDE mode (https://futurecoder.io/course/#ide) gives you an instant scratchpad to write and debug code similar to repl.it.
- Completely interactive course: run code at every step which is checked automatically, keeping you engaged and learning by doing.
- Every exercise has many small optional hints to give you just the information you need to figure it out and no more.
- When the hints run out and you're still stuck, there are 2 ways to gradually reveal a solution so you can still apply your mind and make progress.
- Advice for common mistakes: customised linting for beginners and exercise-specific checks to keep you on track.
- Construct a question that will be well-received on sites like StackOverflow: https://futurecoder.io/course/#question
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I'm obviously biased but I honestly think futurecoder is better than Codecademy or any other similar website, without even counting the fact that it's free. For example, here are some drawbacks of Codecademy:
- Still on Python 3.6 instead of 3.9
- No interactive shell/REPL/console
- No debuggers
- Basic error tracebacks not suitable for beginners
- No stdin, i.e. no input() so you can't write interactive programs, and no pdb.
- No gradual guidance when you're stuck. You can get one big hint, then the full solution in one go. This is not effective for learners having difficulty.
Unless you're looking for something targeted at children, I believe this is the best way for any complete beginner to start learning programming. That's obviously a bold and subjective statement so I'm keen to hear other opinions and feedback. What do you think futurecoder needs? Videos? Quizzes? Gamification? These are all possibilities.
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I posted futurecoder here over a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24020906
It's had a major overhaul since then, including the switch to running in the browser with Pyodide, signup being made optional, and a whole bunch of major new features (e.g. IDE mode, question wizard, Parsons problems, friendly tracebacks, linting, auto-installing imports, and multiple choice questions) and course content. While there's plenty more to do, futurecoder is no longer a 'work in progress'.
> For example, here are some drawbacks of Codecademy
Could you share some drawbacks of Futurecoder compared to Codecademy or other options? Would be useful to know when Futurecoder is and isn't the best option
- This is targeted at beginners. If you already know how to program and just need to know how Python differs from other programming languages, I would personally expect this to feel a bit too slow. However this is just a guess, I've been told that it's fine by someone who was relearning Python and even made a PR: https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder/pull/171#issuecomm...
- I think futurecoder is the right place for learning the basics, i.e. for a complete beginner or for someone who has struggled with other learning resources. But it's just that - for now the course content doesn't go that far (https://futurecoder.io/course/#toc) and a student will need to find another resource with more content once they finish futurecoder. Even then, they may still find the debuggers and IDE helpful long after.
- The course is not designed for a teaching/classroom environment. It's usable, but it may not fit with how some teachers want to teach. For example, students can get solutions to any exercise. However the IDE may still be useful in a classroom even without the course.
- For mobile devices: Tablets seem like they might be OK but it's not optimised for that and you still have to type lots of code. Phones will technically work but the CSS is basically broken at that screen size. (EDIT: just discovered that telling my browser to look at the desktop site works pretty well)
- Safari doesn't work at all because it doesn't play well with Pyodide, see e.g. https://github.com/pyodide/pyodide/issues/441
- There's no videos, which I assume some people would prefer, but honestly I don't think that's the right way to learn coding.
I was looking for a description of the concepts / chapters covered – I'd suggest having a prominent link to https://futurecoder.io/course/#toc on the front page.
I'd also add the 'no account required' in the first screen – maybe next to the 'Just code' button.
I would like to eventually have multiple courses available, whether that's for covering different topics/tracks (like data science), different styles of teaching, different levels, or different languages. But the current course still isn't 'finished' so having alternatives hasn't been a priority. If you're interested in contributing course material, the basic topics that I want to cover next are listed in https://github.com/alexmojaki/futurecoder/issues/165 . If you'd be more motivated to write a course about pandas or a French translation then I'd be keen to implement the necessary architecture to make that possible for you.
Awesome job, I just through ran through a few of the levels and it seems easily digestible as a refresher.
Beware, when signing up with my email the white overlay signup container became empty (full width, a few pixels tall, no content inside). I clicked outside it to close it, header still showing the blue login/sign up button.
Reloading the page showed me as logged in (my email in the header)
and I can't get past 'hello' + 'world' .. there's no Next button, only Previous
You're not the first person I've seen get confused about this, I'll need to find a way to make it clearer that the interface is waiting for you to run something.
There's no plans for other programming languages, a lot of the features are Python-specific.