Learning to code? Tired of feeling stupid? Try Bloc (use code 'LNCH')

Why would I give my email address to someone in exchange for something I know nothing about, and cannot find any info about?

For those of you wondering what exactly this site is/does:

It seems to be a ruby set of ruby tutorials/lessons. There is a quick tutorial on how to use the interface (pretty simple). Then you're presented with 3 tabbed panes:

- your goal/task

- your editing area

- the output of your code (complete with ruby error msg if present)

I've completed the first couple of tutorials and it seems to be fun. However, I STRONGLY suggest the creators put some more info up to incite people to actually sign up. I had no idea what I was giving my email address for.

On the first letter of the invite code entry fields, I see a box character, as if there's a character that I don't have on my system.

I took a look, and I saw a whole bunch of this in the CSS:

    .first:before{
        content:"\e04c"
    }
    
    .last:before{
        content:"\e04d"
    }
    
    .fullscreen:before{
        content:"\e04e"
    }
    
    .fullscreen_alt:before{
        content:"\e04f"
    }
    
    .fullscreen_exit:before{
        content:"\e050"
    }
    
    .fullscreen_exit_alt:before{
        content:"\e051"
    }
    
    .equalizer:before{
        content:"\e052"
    }

I wonder why they're adding a bunch of private use area character in the CSS? It's not like there's a custom font on the page that uses those characters. The only thing it can do is cause problems for people, like me, who must have some font on their system that covers one of those characters.

I still remember the first time I opened teamtreehouse.com, you immediately get a sense what the website will do for you if you sign up. This is very vague and I am not willing to provide my e-mail.

I like the layout, the 3 tabbed areas are intuitive.

Is it aimed at complete beginners?

The tasks were easy but the videos made them sound hard or described actions using vague terms. After completing a chapter I didn't feel rewarded just a little confused. The feeling of progress & logic is a key essence of learning to code.

What you explain in the videos doesn't quite link with the task so I think for a total novice it would be confusing.

Just a few points compared to other in-browser coding tuts that I've tried in the past.

I found the video tough to see what you were typing even with the vid at full screen. The text on the sketches was also a little small.

Success message should be clearer. I only could tell I had got a chapter right by the green tick, the 'success' message was " Your app should respond to web requests. Display "awesome" somewhere on the page" - (even though I had written "My awesome URL shortener") I was left feeling as though I had missed something.

The errors it throws up when you get things wrong don't point the user in the right direction. e.g

"RSpec::Expectations::ExpectationNotMetError: expected #has_selector?("title") to return true, got false"

The clicking/highlighting of text on your example pages during the video gets really distracting, especially for users who will watch the videos several times over.

I think if you refine the videos a little more it will become a great resource. Even if they become a little scripted it becomes more formal structured learning and less friend to friend chatter.

I'll keep checking back to see what other stuff you add!

I played around with this for a bit, it seems okay.

It seems to me like a potentially better way to do it would be more so in a Khan Academy style of doing things, where there's a video that you follow along with, and maybe have your text editor in a separate window so that people can work on the code while watching the video, and then exercises that you do after the tutorial video that people can comment on and get help with from other users and the creator potentially.

I personally think net.tutsplus.com does a pretty good job at this, but I think your site could do it better if it offered a more personal experience.

I know I'm going to get flak for this but I have to wonder and ask: Even though I know it's 'new' and in 'beta', but just from the login page, I can already feel the effort and care to go into the design – alot of custom graphics and colors, especially the lessons themselves. But then I start the second lesson, I see the dreaded blue button. Yeah, that button. My eyes were having such a grand time too! Why leave the default button in there when everything else looks great :(

Back to finishing up the lessons, everything else is great!

Is feeling stupid so bad? Must everything be fun and game-ish these days? Hard things are hard; learning to code is hard, I'll give you that.

Maybe I've just been taken aback recently by the number of "learn to code" sites recently, but if you don't love it, no amount of "fun and easy and social and badges!" is gonna make you stick with it.

That being said... for people who do, in fact, love coding, this (and the others) may be an excellent resource for learning, so good on you. It's not my method of choice, but who am I?

I think this is a great product. Just out of curiosity and if the co-founders see this comment, how often do you think you'll be releasing new courses to learn? Great job otherwise!

I can't see what my code does; I can only see the test results. I find this really off putting, and I don;t really get a sense of creating code that does something.

RSpec::Mocks::MockExpectationError: # received :puts with unexpected arguments expected: ("Hello, world!") got: ("") Is not the sort of error I'd expect someone learning to program to find helpful.

The second exercise needs me to watch a video, and I personally hate learning from watching videos so I stopped there.

So learning how to code _something_ is the opposite of not feeling stupid?

Since when learning to code is something everybody HAS to do nowadays? Let's all also learn how to use a crane or how to perform surgery and get badges while we're at it.

Very cool. For those of us who already know how to code, I think this would be fantastic way to learn new languages and platforms. I hope more of the advanced courses are on the horizon.

Fun stuff.

In chapter 1 of the Url shortener, the task is to display "Awesome" at the root path, but the validator checks for "awesome." Took me a second to notice the discrepancy.

Erk, guess you are being slammed. All I get (once signed up) is: http://cl.ly/1S2N1S3E3F0C0u1q1M2C

This is excellent. Teaches tests first... I'll be sharing. Thanks.

Is this site intended for newbies?, I can give my opinion as one.