Looking back at my first coding meetup in Austin

I went to a beginner Python meetup in Austin about 8 years ago. The guy running it spent the first 20 minutes just showing us how to set up a simple text editor and run a file from the terminal. Before that, I was only using the big, fancy IDEs that came with my online course. Seeing that basic process, typing 'python hello.py' and it just working, made everything feel less scary. It clicked that the tools don't need to be complex to start. I still use that same simple setup for trying out new ideas. What was the first thing that made coding feel less intimidating for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

tylerg303d ago

That setup moment is huge... for me it was seeing real error messages in the terminal instead of a red squiggly in an IDE. Reading the plain text and fixing a typa made it feel like I was actually talking to the computer, not just filling in blanks.

the_charlie3d ago

8 years ago and you still use that same simple setup? That's wild, I change my editor like every 6 months.