Show HN: iOS app for learning Python | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: iOS app for learning Python

mobileicecube.com

35 pointsvillek15 comments

This is pretty cool, especially for learning how to visually parse basic python quickly.

I'd also add a couple of other tools:

Pythonista is indispensable for learning/using Python on iOS. 'Python for iOS' is good too-- it isn't as clean as Pythonista, but it does include the python.org language docs with the app. The both utilize python 2.7 and a REPL, but I think there are other versions that use Python 3.

Thanks!

Pythonista and 'Python for iOS' are good apps, with quite different goals than my app. They allow trying and exploring the language and learning to write programs, whereas I aim to teach basic reading skills of programs. Both are important skills.

There nowadays seems to be 'Python x.x for iOS' for almost all recent versions of Python :)

After playing around with this since you released it yesterday, the answer buttons need to be much bigger. You definitely have the real estate on the screen (iPhone 5). It'd be cool to separate them as well so they're not all touching.

I have pretty small hands/fingers and still end up mis-clicking after periods of use.

Awesome app though, love the skip feature!

Thanks for the feedback! Some of the questions have quite long code snippets, while some have only one line. But there should be room at least on iPhone5 to make the buttons larger. I'll work on it for the next update.

but how do you try out the python code - say in a REPL - in an iPhone app? wouldn't you need a computer anyway?

In my app, you cannot try out the code. You can step through the execution to see how the program state changes, but that's based on a pre-generated trace of the program execution.

In Pythonista and 'Python for iOS' mentioned by ldayley you can execute the code you write. Don't know how they do it, though.

Why is the app free? Is it supported by ads or are you planning on capitalizing it in the future?

The app is free today and will change to paid ($0.99) tomorrow. I wanted to get downloads and hopefully climb in the rankings when launching.

That said, I built the app mostly for fun and learning, so making money -- while a nice bonus -- isn't the main motivator.

Please note that when switching an app between free and paid, your position in the rankings resets. If you get 1 million free downloads, and change your app to paid the next day, none of those downloads count in the paid charts ranking algorithm. (At least, in the past it hasn't)

That's good to know, thanks. Based on a previous launch, I was under the impression that they wouldn't reset. But it certainly does make sense that they do reset when going from free to paid.

Will you build this out into other languages? Maybe a Dualingo for coders?

I've thought of other languages, but decided to focus on improving this Python version for now. This is a side project, so development time is limited.

High score is currently 64843. Best use of time-spent-in-line ever!

may need to extend various feature, all the best.

Yes, my list of feature and improvement ideas seems endless ;)

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