Episode 3 is airing on Thursday and I 'll be sharing my while loop, as well as looking at some a...

[G+_Shannon Morse]

Episode 3 is airing on Thursday and I'll be sharing my while loop, as well as looking at some alternative coding applications for OSX. Have one in mind I should mention? Please show us your own while loops!

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

We should chat...

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

Fishing for while loop examples?

 

Show me yours and I'll show you mine :)

 

But seriously, before teaching loops, you need to bring us up to speed on logical operators, no?

 

What is a "Coding Application"? Never heard  that before. Do you mean a "language", or an "IDE" for a Language? A script debugger? Perhaps you are looking for a brand of spreadsheet with macro's?

 

I hate XCode, but many IDE's (integratd development enviroments) float on top of it. You will probably eventually need it for any real development on OSX. If you install the command like tools extras, you can even compile "Straight C" from terminal.

 

Need Simple, fast, asy and free? Free Pascal works just about everywhere (even on the Raspberry Pi) , and Pascal is an ideal language designed for teaching. You can use a text editor to write the code:

 

program MyFirstProgram;

 

begin

  writeln('Hello TWiT');

end;

 

A lot less confusing to your viewers and a C# project, ey?

 

if you want a Drag and Drop IDE for Free Pascal, installing Lazarus (also free) works very well.  Neither require a developer account. Free Pascal comes with a text based IDE reminiscent of Turbo Pascal.

 

Lazarus/FreeePascal will work for everything (the moto is "Write Once, Compile Anywhere"). There are even some rough frameworks for outputting an iOS or Android app, so you can move that app you wrote on Windows right over to OSX or Linux.

 

If you have a Windows Box and a Mac, then "RAD Studio" is a great bet (although the install is huge, and the non-free versions are expensive). Basically, you get Delphi (pascal) and C++Builder, a nice IDE, and the ability to write code that can compile for WIndows, OSX, iOS, and Android (but no Windows Store Apps - only Visual Studio will do that).

 

I am very partial to Delphi, because it is very easy to learn, forgiving, fast, and, well, err... I was on the Delphi team back in the old days of Borland, helped with many of the Delphi books, and punched out a bit over 700 articles on Programming in Delphi.

 

Delphi also has the same origins as C# (both where designed by Anders Hejlsberg - now Microsoft Technical Fellow and still debtor to me for one Danish Flag - and a top for when I held the door open to Bill Gates's Limo the day Microsoft hired him way from Borland - LOL). Point is, you will see a lot of similarities between C# and Delphi for that reason, and moving between the two is rather easy.

 

Oh, Perl is always fun, and is built in to OSX and Linux, so all you need is a terminal window.

 

Now back to the while loop:

 

while (not(Learned_All_About_Variables)) do begin

 AskQuestionsAnoutConditionals('Shannon');

end;

 

or in C:

 

while (!Learned_All_About_Variables) {

 AskMoreQuestions('Shannon');

}

 

Or perhaps:

 

repeat

  Learn_Basics();

until (we_know_enough_to_write_a_loop);

 

Or perhaps:

 

while (forever_condition) {

  Ask_About_Control_Keywords;

  if (you_want_out_of_loop) {

    break;

  }

}

 

TJoe - Code4Sale - LLC

[G+_Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ]

Joe Hecht I absolutely respect your experience. I taught C++ for 2 years and VB for 3, so I understand that this is NOT the typical classroom environment... but please understand that we're doing something different here.

 

Peace,

Padre

[G+_Joe C. Hecht]

Dear Padre SJ,

 

I too absolutely respect your experience, and I very much enjoy watching your offerings on TWiT.

 

I respect your honesty and truthfulness. You have said:

 

"time constrained"

 

"not a typical classroom" 

 

"doing something different"

 

OK. Clearly explaining the material you have covered to date and presented on a netcast only takes only a couple of minutes and a few power point slides.

 

This has been all been done thousands of times before.

 

Perhaps those statements might not look so much like excuses if you might let us in on what it is you are doing (or planning) that is so "different"?

 

Sorry to say that, so far, the half dozen or so viewers here have come away feeling like the presentations have been unclear, rushed, and even scattered.

 

Since you are a professional instructor in the subject (with 5 years experience), even you would be forced to concur with the assessment (so far).

 

That leaves me to ask why would you knowingly present the material to your viewers using anything less than clear and concise methods?

 

In the end, if this show represents your very best work, achieves TWiT's very high standard of quality, and your viewers and advertisers are content, nothing else really matters.

 

TJoe

[G+_lveJac jac]

I can not wait for the third show.  Keep up the great work.

[G+_Stephen Hart]

Tip for looking things up while coding:

Going to StackOverflow or doing a full google search can send you down a rabbit hole and make you lose focus.

 

Type the word you are interested in (eg: "for"), put the cursor under it and press F1 to get online help and code examples from msdn.

 

Even better, get a small paper book like "C# pocket reference" that you can hold in one hand. My copy was only $15. It's great to remind you of things you learned but can't quite remember.

Get a big C# book and read a page while eating breakfast. Think about how the language item you are reading about would let you rewrite an old program in a new way.

 

=====

 

Another thing you may want to cover:

"x = x + 1" looks really weird to many people.  Walk through what it means.

[G+_Robert Higgins]

Amazing old us "Old Timers" can be so hard headed.

[G+_Pradyumn Vij]

Stephen Hart "x = x+1" makes complete sense, it's basic logical maths if you know that you are writing a loop.

[G+_Shannon Morse]

So the reason I was asking is because I want to FEATURE viewer submissions on the show... I wasn't looking for answers for myself. I have my own example. I want to show off some viewer ideas to give y'all some credit and a moment in the spotlight!