Forem: katyadee

DOLLAR SIGNS WILL NOT KILL YOU. Preaching the good word of Perl 6.

katyadee — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:37:02 +0000

$ greetings, friends.

Let’s jump right into Perl 6.

@theangryepicbanana: Hi! My name is Alan, and that’s the only part of my name I’ll be saying. I’ve been programming for a little under six years and I love using obscure or unpopular languages just for the fun of it. I also like making games, playing games, and teaching other people how to code.

@katyadee: So let’s just jump right into it—what’s the appeal there, with unpopular languages? And do you mean languages that aren’t used very often, or esoteric languages?

@theangryepicbanana: Languages that aren’t mainstream. Like, of course Perl 6. Or Crystal. All these languages that people are like, “I’ve never heard of that.” Or “I’d never use that.”

@katyadee: What draws you to them? Like, do Crystal and Perl 6 have something in common, or is it just that they’re obscure and that in and of itself is enough?

@theangryepicbanana: In my experience in programming, learning more languages helps you give a better understanding of how the other ones you already know work. Like, learning Perl 6 helped me understand how Ruby’s meta programming worked and you know, using TCL helped me understand the whole concept of the Lisp language because you use lists everywhere.

@katyadee: But that still doesn’t answer the question—why not learn a bunch of mainstream ones? You could do the same by mastering C++, Java, and Python, right? It doesn’t seem like something exclusive to obscure languages.

@theangryepicbanana: Well first of all, I have learned mainstream languages! I know Python, I’ve tried Rust, C++, Java, Javascript… I see more value in using a less popular language because I find it more interesting to see what it can do compared to other languages.

@katyadee: But don’t you think they’re less popular for a reason?

@theangryepicbanana: You know, sometimes it’s syntax, though. People are constantly judging Perls over its sigils or the dollar signs or at signs or percent signs that you put before variable names. When you first approach it, it does look pretty ugly and bad, but once you understand why it works, then it looks a lot better to you, I think. When I first started Python, I was one of those people who was like, “Why the HECK do I have to indent everything?” I didn’t indent up until that point. But once I got into, I realized it was a lot cleaner. I learned why I had to indent.

On being the J.R.R. Tolkien of Programming

@katyadee: That’s interesting. I don’t know that one would have to learn Perl 6 to detract those lessons… But it’s a good point, I think. So I was looking at your repls, and it looks like you’ve created at least two languages of your own. Let’s talk about that.

@theangryepicbanana: Yes! One of them I haven’t updated yet, but I keep meaning to. I got into making programming languages when I learned Perl 6, because you can add anything to the language and it just works. And I was like, wow, I want to make a language like that—I thought it was a really good idea. It did not end well. BUT! The first language I made was called Talk. But I just replaced some of the symbols in Perl 6 with English words. Which is why it’s called Talk.

I guess it was good for a first attempt, but I was only using Regex to convert things. It worked. I even impressed my parents.

@katyadee: Nice.

@theangryepicbanana: Then, the second language I made was successful—it’s called Objective N. A while back I found this very tiny language called Neko (it’s kind of like Lua). So I created something similar to Neko, that ran on Neko, but more similar to other languages. I chose Objective C. You know what that is, right? The one Apple used to use.

So my goals were: No need for manual garbage collection and stuff like that. I made the parser, I made the compiler, took a very long time, BUT! Since I was making a language the correct way, I didn’t run into the problems I did with Talk. Which was: It was extremely slow, it broke a lot… Long story short, it worked. I haven’t put this online yet, but I’m making a third language, too.

@katyadee: Where does creation take place?

@theangryepicbanana: For StarLang, which is my latest language, I’m making the specification on Replit, and I may make a prototype compiler on Replit as well. I’m hoping to have the specification done by… sometime next month.

@katyadee: How much time a day are you spending on these things?

@theangryepicbanana: I definitely don’t code everyday. My brain is all over the place.

@katyadee: But wait, what about LineLang…?

@theangryepicbanana: OH! So I am making my fourth language. Line Lang… I’d made an interpreter on my TI-84 calculator—do you know what that is?—

@katyadee: Texas Instruments, it’s right down the street from me, friend.

@theangryepicbanana: Well—I made an interpreter on there—and I realized I could do that somewhere else. So I made something similar to it, called Line Lang. How would I describe it… It’s like Brain F, except a little bit more advanced.

@katyadee: How’d you keep that straight in your head? It looks confusing.

@theangryepicbanana: It got EXTREMELY confusing. I made it so the interpreter ignored any character that wasn’t from its specific set of characters, that way I could comment the code.

@katyadee: What are you hoping to gain when you create a language? Maybe aside from a project like Line Lang, which seems like it’s more just for fun. How has this process changed your perspective?

@theangryepicbanana: Those are two questions, definitely. The reason you create languages is to test my own skill or to compete with another language or to make a language for a purpose that doesn’t have a language yet.

@katyadee: But is that why you do it? Have you created a language for something that doesn’t have a purpose yet?

@theangryepicbanana: No, not yet. But I’m planning on it. I want to make something that’ll make creating very small applications a very easy thing to do. Like… You can always make a Python script and make it executable, but it’s not very fast, and if you want to change stuff in it, it takes a while. I’ve been working on making a modular language that can be compared to Java, but it’s much faster and smaller than Java. But I did that partially to test my skills, but partially, to make it easier to make small apps and games.

@katyadee: Is this as ambitious as I’m understanding it to be?

@theangryepicbanana: Yes! It combines a lot of ideas from other languages, including SmallTalk, Java, and Lisp.

Back to the drawing board

@katyadee: What’s the process like? How would you even embark on a project like this?

@theangryepicbanana: First thing you need is specifications. Whether it be making code examples or going into detail how the object system works. You plan out EVERYTHING about the language before you even start on the compiler or the run time. Otherwise, it gets very messy.

@katyadee: What does that planning process look like? An outline?

@theangryepicbanana: Yes.

@katyadee: So walk me through this—I’m a n00b. What are the first three things you need to decide?

@theangryepicbanana: First three…
What’s the syntax for comments? Because that takes a long time.
You need to figure out how you’re going to handle white space. And bascially that means deciding if you’re going to do what Ruby does and put operators on their own line, but it’s still part of an expression, or if you’re going to do what Python does, and use parentheses… Et cetera.
Lastly, you need to figure out how functions are going to work internally, not just in the syntax. Do you want dynamic or static dispatch? You need to know that as soon as you start.

@katyadee: How do you personally make those kinds of big decisions?

@theangryepicbanana: I look at other languages that have succeeded in one or all of these areas and use ideas from them.

@katyadee: How long does it take? How long is “pre-production,” if you will?

@theangryepicbanana: Well… I’d say coming up with functions could probably take a few days.

@katyadee: A few days. Cumulatively? Like, it’s 72 hours worth of work, for instance?

@theangryepicbanana: Unless you’re thinking about it constantly, yeah.

Opening the doors of perception…

@theangryepicbanana: Can we talk about how this makes me look at other languages?

@katyadee: Yeah, shoot!

@theangryepicbanana: When I was making Talk, it made me realize how many other languages use symbols instead of trying to make a word for everything because before I thought that it was just a small thing, I could probably switch it out at some point, but in reality, no, many languages use symbols for common things. And and or, many languages use the double pipe/bar sign. For calling functions, I’ve always hated using parantheses but then when I was making Talk, I was like wow, these are used a lot more than I thought they’d be.
@katyadee: Do you feel like you were trying to fix things that had bothered you?

@theangryepicbanana: At the time, I only knew 6 to 7 languages and I only knew 3 of them very well—

@katyadee: In my world, we’d call that a hyperpolyglot, 6 or 7 isn’t bad!

@theangryepicbanana: [laughing] …so, I thought the ideal language would be one that only used English for its syntax.

@katyadee: Because it’s more organic to write?

@theangryepicbanana: It’s more natural to read or use… or so I thought.

@katyadee: Let me guess: the transformative power of symbols emerged…

@theangryepicbanana: I mean, yeah, it just became so verbose… I realized I wouldn’t be able to understand the code I was writing an hour from now, let alone any other amount of time into the future.

@katyadee: I guess that’s also a really good exercise—to see why things are the way they are… A rules aren’t always meant to be broken kind of thing.

@theangryepicbanana: For example, there’s a reason Python doesn’t have any sort of macros. That’s just now how the language is built. How are you going to make macros for a language that uses indentation as its syntax. Just think about that for a second. How would you actually go about doing that. I’m serious!

Getting a little meta

@katyadee: Let’s talk about something that might be a little confusing for folks who are fresh on the scene. You have to create a language in another language.

@theangryepicbanana: Unless you’re targeting Assembly. Which I’d never recommend, by the way. Usually, you should make an interpreter, which does not require compiling. The way an interpreter works is that the language your language is built on, basically executes your language as it’s reading it. You don’t need to compile it to anything, it just runs. That’s a lot easier than making something that compiles to Assembly. The reason I recommend against that is because you have to figure out memory management… and it can get confusing.

@katyadee: Are the languages you’ve created all interpreted?

@theangryepicbanana: Talk was transpiled. Transpiling means converting from one high level language to another. So Ruby to Python, for example. Objective N is actually compiled, because I’m converting from a high level language to a mid to low level language. And then Neko itself is compiled.

@katyadee: And now that you’ve had the experience of creating languages—what do you prefer? Interpreted? Compiled? Transpiled?

@theangryepicbanana: All three ways work for different reasons and purposes.
Transpiling is a lot easier because you’re converting from one language to another language you already know. It handles things like garbage collecting, a coherent object system, and variable contexts, but you can’t do much outside of what the base language can do.

Interpreting is usually very slow, but a lot easier to make an interpreter because you don’t have to compile, obviously. And usually, an interpreter is good for one liners. One line of code that does something.

Compiled languages are good for being fast or for games, which ties into being fast.

They all have their ups and downs. I guess if I had to choose… I like interpreters.

What even is a good programming language?

@katyadee: What makes a programming language good?

@theangryepicbanana: [long sigh]

@katyadee: [laughing] Come on.

@theangryepicbanana: It’s a big question! Okay, so it depends on what the language is, or what its purpose is. Like golang, or Rust, which were languages that were made to be small or fast and low level… with those kinds of languages, what makes it good, in my opinion, is how easy it is to get stuff done in it. So, in Go, it takes a while to get stuff done, but it happens eventually. But then compare it to Rust—it’s hard to do if you’re new to the language, but then once you’re familiar, it’s a lot easier and efficient than Go.

Any general purpose language like Python, Javascript, Ruby, what makes THOSE languages good is how well they’re able to be concise while remaining understandable and functional.

Rubyyyy

We know @theangryepicbanana is a big Perl 6 fan, but he’s also Ruby fan. @katyadee investigated this a bit further.

@katyadee: So I’ve noticed people hate Ruby. What’s the deal with that?

@theangryepicbanana: A while back Twitter announced it was moving to something else, because Ruby on Rails was too slow. And then the popularity of Ruby nosedived after that. The other thing is Ruby is usually associated with Ruby on Rails, and because people always associate it with Rails, they don’t really see Ruby as its own language…which probably contributes to part of it. They’re going to be like, “Oh, it’s just Rails, there’s nothing it can really do…other than make websites.” But there is a lot more that Ruby can do outside of that.

@katyadee: Sounds like it’s this kind of tragic case of mistaken identity.

@theangryepicbanana: Ruby is an amazing language! I like everything about it, except maybe how unpopular it is.

@katyadee: But you like unpopular languages!

@theangryepicbanana: Oh, true.

The Repl.it Community, becoming a translator, and we say our goodbyes

@katyadee: How long have you been with us?

@theangryepicbanana: I started using it in 7th grade…so about four years.

@katyadee: That’s a long time. So you must have been coding for a very long time, too.

@theangryepicbanana: I started learning about a year beforehand, then I searched for online Ruby IDE and I found Repl.it.

@katyadee: You meet a lot of people who start coding sort of young, but you seem to think about code in a more nuanced way than I lot of the people I’ve met.

@theangryepicbanana: Programming is just part of my entire life. Once I found it, it just clicked with me. I realized what I wanted to do in life. Before that… I had no idea.

@katyadee: Oh come on, you were like 10!

@theangryepicbanana: Still, finding programming gave me purpose.

@katyadee: That’s INCREDIBLE. And you’re so fluent in it now.

@theangryepicbanana: I always try to think about the bigger picture, how everything works together in a language.

@katyadee: You’re like the programming equivalent of a linguist. I wonder what the name is for someone who has your skillset—you don’t only know how to code, but you understand it on this meta level.

@theangryepicbanana: I’ve been asking around… I want a job like that. No answers yet.

@katyadee: Maybe academia?

@theangryepicbanana: Maybe there’s a translator job…like, converting one language to another. I have so much fun doing that. It’s very difficult. Like, if a company need to convert their codebase…I’d want to do that.

@katyadee: You’re kind of like the JRR Tolkien of programming. Or at least on that road. You know, you’re a real staple of our community. What keeps you around?

@theangryepicbanana: Constantly having arguments about Perl 6.

@katyadee: Okay, edgelord opinion on my end here, I think IN A WAY that could make you more intelligent because it forces you to have a concrete reason to like something. I mean, in theory. But I’ve gotta ask—and I can’t believe I asked this about Ruby but not Perl 6—why? Why do you think people hate it?

@theangryepicbanana: Well, mat’s are is: it’s ugly, it’s ugly, and it’s ugly.

@katyadee: What does that mean?

@theangryepicbanana: It’s an emotional reaction people have to sigils…But why I like Perl 6 so much…It was the first language that helped me understand how classes and data types in general actually work. It makes data types simple yet complex deep down inside—their internals—and that kind of stuff helps me understand how all that works. AND… Perl 6 has so many features that come with the language automatically, versus having to import it… I’d rather have it there than not.

@katyadee: Preaching the good word of taking Perl 6 seriously, I think that’s a good place to close.

@theangryepicbanana: DOLLAR SIGNS WILL NOT KILL YOU.

Learning Javascript through teaching Javascript.

katyadee — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 23:55:10 +0000

From Hilton Head, South Carolina, I bid you all good morning and/or good evening, wherever you are in this great land of ours—from the Tahitian and Hawaiian Islands in the west, nestled in the warm trade winds of the Pacific, eastward to Caribbean and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with her own soft winds, south into South America, north all the way to the Pole, and of course hello to all our friends in the Antarctic, at McMurdough. 👋

Today we have a first time caller, long time listener, resident Javascript expert and intern, @eankeen.

@katyadee: Hey friend, happy to have you on the line. Let's start with an introduction.

@eankeen: I’m Edwin and I really like doing programming. I started maybe one and a half years ago—junior year of high school. That was sort of the time where I found Repl.it. I had found it before, but it was really junior year when I started seriously using it.

@katyadee: How’d you find Repl.it?

@eankeen: It was actually in my bookmarks, and it was bookmarked maybe three years ago because I had been doing a computer science club with my high school, and when I was researching how to start that club I found Repl.it because it was good for online coding. The club never materialized, but then I looked at my bookmarks a few years later and I realized, hey, I kind of remember this, and then I started using it.

I really like Repl.it because I can use it to experiment, usually things that are only 20 or 30 lines of code.

@katyadee: Do you find you’re testing things on a lot on Repl.it?

@eankeen: Yeah—and I categorize them into what I’m testing. If I keep them in my archive and if need it again or forget how I did something, I go back and look for it.

@katyadee: So what kind of things will you test?

@eankeen: Javascript APIs and node.js, mostly.

@katyadee: It seems like you’re definitely a front end guy taking a look at your repls. Any plans to branch out?

@eankeen: I really love front end, I really like creating user interfaces, I think that’s really fun—I leverage Javascript to do that. I realize if I want to become better at programming, I definitely need to branch out… I’m slowly starting to add other languages.

@katyadee: Do you have an interest in design at all?

@eankeen: I would say I do, but it’s hard, because I haven’t done enough of it. I don’t have the same knowledge of it. But I love thinking about UX… I love transitions. It’s kind of a fun challenge. I only actually do design outside of that when I absolutely need to right now.

On Teaching & Learning

@katyadee: Let’s pivot a little bit. I’ve noticed when it comes to the things you share with our community, you post a lot more tutorials than you do projects. What motivates you to teach other people?

@eankeen: Yeah so, I think it’s really cool to teach people. Sometimes I’ll check Twitter and noticed someone’s benefitted from my tutorial. Otherwise, a lot of the projects I’m building aren’t cool enough to share. But I really get hyped about being able to help people learn something new.

@katyadee: How do you decide what you’re going to write your tutorials about?

@eankeen: It’s usually just things I’m excited to learn about myself.

@katyadee: Oh—wait—that’s really neat. Are you learning these concepts as you’re writing them?

@eankeen: It depends. For Babylon.js, for example, I knew how to do it—but I learned how to use Intersection Observers while writing the tutorial.

@katyadee: So, you’re like, “Okay, I want to learn this, I’m going to write about it”? That’s amazing, especially having seen the quality and how much mileage people get out of it.

@eankeen: It’s kind of cool once you learn something like that, too.

@katyadee: Would you say that’s the main way you learn new skills? By writing about them?

@eankeen: That’s definitely one way—it’s either writing a tutorial or building a project.

@katyadee: Do you learn other skills the same way? Like, if you’re learning something new at school?

@eankeen: It’s a bit easier with programming… well, I guess I do it for school. I’ll do problems then explain them to myself later while studying.

@katyadee: That’s really cool. I remember being taught a similar method in AP American History, which is why I asked. I also wanted to ask—I feel like the writing in your tutorials is just good writing. Is that something you think about when you’re creating these?

@eankeen: I don’t think I’m a naturally good writer, no, haha. I kind of observed that other people who write blogs and tutorials first. I picked out the parts I liked and then I tried to copy structures that I understood. I actually don’t think I’m very good with English, like I don’t know what a prepositional phrase is… I’m not good at that kind of thing. But I tried to pick up patterns with what I thought was working. I try to be casual but succinct, I think that goes a long way.

@katyadee: It’s so funny to me you say that you’re not good at English, because you’re doing a really good job with these tutorials. I wouldn’t say you’re bad at English, either—like, individual grammatical concepts, who cares if you’re producing stuff that’s legible, enjoyable to read, and also informational. Your communication is very clear—at least to me, a newbie.

@eankeen: That’s really good to hear.

@katyadee: What do you think the relationship between teaching and learning is?

@eankeen: I think that when you teach, you’re forced to learn something more thoroughly.

@katyadee: I’ve heard that, but I feel like it’s underexplored. Do you think that attitude is unique in the dev community, at least as far as you know?

@eankeen: I don’t think it’s uncommon, but a lot of people are just learning and learning and learning, and they don’t use the skills enough, so they can’t really apply them. Application is more important than just knowing facts. The thing is, teaching and applying are pretty similar. Just memorizing isn’t going to make you a better programmer.

@katyadee: Are there any tutorials you’ve abandoned? Or are there any concepts you’ve found you’ve struggled to explain?

@eankeen: Yes! I was trying to do this thing where you open up a repl on two computers, and then create a clipboard between computers… but it didn’t quite work out because the library I was using was too buggy, I must have been doing it wrong but I couldn’t figure it out. So I just abandoned it.

@katyadee: Did you ever figure it out?

@eankeen: I never went back to it, haha.

Babylon.js

@katyadee: I like your two Babylon tutorials a lot—I’ve actually featured them in the newsletter.

Can you explain what Babylon.js is for people who might not be familiar?

@eankeen: Babylon.js is a 3D JS library. If you’re thinking about something that’s 3D, like any object, and you want to make it…or animate it…or make it dynamic, you’d use Babylon.

@katyadee: Have you made any projects with it?

@eankeen: Yeah, so one of the game jams, I made a small game with it. That was when I was first learning Babylon.

@katyadee: What kinds of projects would you say lend themselves best to Babylon vs. another library, like three.js?

@eankeen: I think if you want to work on a project more long term, you might want to go with Babylon, because Babylon has a Semantic versioning system… but with three.js, you can go between versions and there will be a bunch of changes, so Babylon is more friendly in that regard, because less stuff is going to break from update to update. But another thing to think about is…if you want something more lean, three.js feels more lean.

React

@katyadee: So, I’m not even going to ask why you’re interested in React because I think it goes without saying—haha. But I do want to ask.. What are some common mistakes you’ve noticed people make when they’re starting off learning it? What are some things you personally found challenging about it?

@eankeen: I think one mistake a lot of beginners make is not knowing what’s React versus what’s just JavaScript…It’s also kind of hard to work out what’s the big picture. It took me a while to get that big picture and really figure out what’s going on. One thing with Repl.it is it doesn’t really show you all the build tools, which is good for beginners—you shouldn’t have to worry about that at first.

@katyadee: You had noted somewhere that tutorials kind of gloss over the “obvious” parts of React. What did you mean by that?

@eankeen: A lot of basic stuff. For example, building your webpack integration file. Or common structures—you need a good foundation or it’ll be a little more difficult. I encountered these problems while learning Vue.js too, which is similar to React.

@katyadee: I’ve been wondering, despite your great React tutorial, you mention Vue.js quite a bit—do you prefer it?

@eankeen: I’m just more familiar with it. I also like the aspect of your CSS coming in actual CSS files. When you’re a beginner or less experienced, it’s easier to recognize the different elements. But if you’re using React, it’s less intuitive.

@katyadee: What was your timeline like, learning Vue.js and React?

@eankeen: I started learning Vue.js when I started learning Javascript… and React a little bit after.

Empty

@katyadee: What is Empty?

@eankeen: Oh my god. So @mat1 made an Empty game however long ago. It’s minimalistic. It’s in Python. I thought hey, I want to do something fun. So I wanted to create a sequel. So instead of Python, it’s Javascript. And I talked about how much better it was than @mat1’s Python repl, even though it’s blank. I spent a few hours writing something up, where I was just criticizing the most minute details. I tried to make it sort of funny and sarcastic.

@katyadee: That’s great satire—I wanted to give it some love here.

Closing

@katyadee: What advice would you give to people who want to write their own tutorials? And what would you say to people who would never write their own tutorials?

@eankeen: For people who want to write a tutorial, look at material you found really useful, and try to copy their patterns. Simplicity goes a long way. For people who would never write a tutorial, I’d say: writing turoials helps you learn things faster!

Music + code = a chance to win $5k? We're hosting an online music-themed hackathon!

katyadee — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 17:16:52 +0000

🎵 Repl.it Online Music Hackathon

This one is a little different from hackathons we've done in the past:

We're open to any kind of submission, so long as it's built on Repl.it and incorporates music in some way.
We have one stellar judge, Tom Lehman, the CEO of Genius.
Most exciting of all: our grand prize is $5,000 (with $2,500 and $1,00 second & third prizes!)

You better get building! We already have some great submissions:

DEVELOPER SPOTLIGHT #06: “Work with each other, not against one another.”

katyadee — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 21:48:50 +0000

Welcome to another (slightly late!) edition of our Developer Spotlight series! This week we sat down with the founder of the volunteering app Questlin,18-year-old Sam Miserendino.

This Dev Spotlight is a special one... it'll be coming to you in two parts. Stay tuned next Monday for Part 2.

@katyadee: Let’s start with the basics. Who’s Sam?

@samdevz: Hi, I’m Sam. I’ve been programming since 9th grade. It’s always been my passion. There was as tudent at my school that I went to, and he was really involved in programming… He was making some popular apps, so that got me into it. I started with web development and a little bit of machine learning, and now I’m making apps and stuff. I use Repl.it basically every day, or almost every day, usually to test code or get things running quickly.

I contacted Amjad in like…June I think? I was looking to do some work with you guys, or see how I could contribute in more meaningful ways, and he said unfortunately that there were so many interns this summer that they couldn’t take me, but we’re going to see if we can set something up next year, or maybe in the fall…so that’s really exciting for me. I’m just really excited about that opportunity—and also to talk to you!

@katyadee: I actually had no idea! All I knew was about your involvement WWDC… and I was really curious about what that was like.

@samdevz: Oh, that was really exciting! I applied for the first time to Apple’s WWDC conference… usually it’s pretty expensive to go, and you have to enter a raffle, but for students they have a scholarship and if you’re picked, you can go for free. So I applied, and I won!

@katyadee: For people who might not know—what is WWDC?

@samdevz: Sure, so WWDC is Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Over 5,000 people go, including 350 scholars. The main event is the famous Key Note, where they announce new features and products. It’s the main event for Apple Developers. The best part of it is you can meet the people who created these products. They have sessions all day long, and labs. So you can walk up to the guy who designed the Mac or the iPhone or anything—and they’ll give you really good feedback on what you can do to improve! It’s really a great resource for developers.

@katyadee: What was it like to go as a student?

@samdevz: They did a lot of cool stuff for us… you get to go to all the events—you’re like a regular attendee—you get to watch the Key Note, and you also get to meet with people who have similar interests, or executives who are doing the kinds of things we’re doing, but at a higher level.

I also had the opportunity to meet with this executive named Lisa Jackson. She kind of manages the environmental concerns at Apple and the social concerns—that kind of ties in with what I’m doing. I make a lot of volunteering-oriented apps, that are designed to help people. That was really cool.

@katyadee: Did you have a favorite part?

@samdevz: Oh my god…So much. So, I had a friend there. I make apps and he makes games. We got the chance to meet with Apple’s marketing team, and I thought that was really valuable. They actually sat down with us one on one, and gave us suggestions on how to improve our presence on the App Store, how to market better, all sorts of different tips…like on how to monetize, for example. In general, it was so cool to meet the people who run the App Store.

@katyadee: What was some of the best advice that they gave you?

@samdevz: You always want to have an engaging page on the App Store. Screenshots on your app are important, but so are preview videos. Those keep people engaged. Also make sure your reviews are good, and respond to the reviews you do get. They also talked about monetization and different ways to make money… One of the best ways to make money is really ads. Not a lot of people will spend money in-app if your app is new. So, they walked us through how to get started with ads and that was really helpful, too.

@katyadee: Wow—that’s really dedicated. I’m surprised to hear how available they were to help people.

So, we’ve talked a bit how you’re an app developer… could you tell me a bit more about your background with that?

@samdevz: The main app I’ve developed is called Questlin and it’s an app to help people find places to volunteer near by. That project is really important to me, because my school, we’re required to do service every year. And every year, I’d been kind of doing the physical side of volunteering… but at one point, I was speaking to this executive at this non-profit I go to a lot, and I was asking him about different ways to volunteer.

And then he was like, here’s what we can use actually: an app that can help us keep track of volunteers and volunteering. I started working on Questlin from there. It’s been really cool and it’s gotten some attention. Recently, I even got to meet Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman.

@katyadee: Whoa. That’s really amazing. I’d love to hear more about how that happened.

@samdevz: Well, we entered this thing—it’s actually really great for students and I encourage everyone to enter. It’s called the Congressional App Challenge. Basically, you create an app within your district, and then your representative reviews your app. You get to go to Congress, and meet congresspeople… A lot of them will even download your app. That was a really valuable experience, and I’m really glad I did that.

We’re getting more and more downloads. There’s a place in New Jersey using it…

@katyadee: Let’s back up a second… Is Questlin for keeping track of volunteers, or is it more consumer-facing?

@samdevz: It’s actually both! There’s a portal for non-profits and for volunteers. The biggest challenge has been expanding. The way I designed it, it’ll only show places nearby, so for a lot of people it’s not really that useful right now, it’s more useful in certain places than others. That’s been a big obstacle.

@katyadee: Could I download it here in Austin and use it, or have you only rolled out to certain markets?

@samdevz: Unfortunately, right now we have to manually add non-profits. We’re trying to make it more automatic, though. We’re working on a better version of it. When I won the challenge, it became a featured app in the App Store and it got a lot more downloads, and we got a lot of complaints that users couldn’t use it where they are. But some non-profits have reached out to us, so we’re working on fixing these things now.

@katyadee: Those are pretty exciting obstacles to have, though!

@samdevz: There was so much more interest than I expected, it really just started off as this small thing at my school. I never anticipated people from different places would use it, or an audience this large. Now we’re working to catch up with the demand now.

@katyadee: You know, it sort of reminds me of… I can’t actually remember the name of it. There’s like a website I would use—I mean, this had to be 10 years ago, now—to find volunteer opportunities… I wish I remembered the name, it would make my point more salient. But I guess my question was going to be how you were different from other, existing and similar products.

Maybe my inability to remember them says it all, though.

@samdevz: (laughing) VolunteerMatch, Mobile Serve?

@katyadee: You know what—yeah, I do think it was VolunteerMatch. How would you say you’re different from them?

@samdevz: Well, we’re an app. We want to integrate VolunteerMatch’s API.

@katyadee: That’s awesome that you guys are working together.

@samdevz: It’s a nice space to work in because everyone wants to work together, instead of against one another.

Developer Spotlight: Teach yourself everything.

katyadee — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 16:05:43 +0000

Aloha, friends! Today, I’m writing from the beautiful island of Oahu and I am very pleased to welcome you all to another edition of our Developer Spotlight series!

image compliments of Tumblr

We sat down with one of my favorite community members, @superwhiskers. Some of you might already know @superwhiskers as the golang teacher of our Discord server’s Language Learning Club—but she originally got on my radar because of her Undertale-themed tet chat.

@katyadee : Hey there! Happy to have you here. I know you pretty well, but let’s start off with an introduction for the folks at home. 

@superwhiskers: Hello! I’m just a 16 year old programmer who lives in the U.S. There's not much else to it.

@katyadee : I’ve wondered this for a long time… What’s the story behind your username?  
@superwhiskers: It's just a tweaked version of an older username I had. I've used it for so long and it kinda just stuck. 

@katyadee : 😭 and here I thought it had some cool meaning behind it! Are you in school?  
@superwhiskers: Yes. I take slightly more advanced-ish classes like (e.g. calculus), but I find it boring so anything that I really want to study I do on my own time. For example, I've been looking into studying something called category theory outside of school because it's more college level stuff.

@katyadee : What do you find boring about school? Also… what’s category theory?

@superwhiskers: IDK, I just prefer learning things on my own, so I don't really bother paying too much attention and instead listen enough to learn the basis of what I need to learn and figure out the rest of my own.

And I can't really explain category theory entirely, as I don't understand it entirely myself, and it also encompasses a bit that would be too much to explain here. I'd recommend doing a bit of your own research to explain it rather than having me do so.

@katyadee : LOL, ok. Let’s talk programming.

How’d you get into coding? How long have you been coding?

@superwhiskers: I’ve been programming seriously for over a year now, but I’ve been doing programming longer than that (around 5 or so years) but nothing notable really came from that.

@katyadee : What do you mean that you've been 'programming seriously' for over a year? What changed?

@superwhiskers: I begun to understand the basics much better, and got really, really good at programming in golang. It was a substantial improvement from where I was a year ago.

@katyadee : You are pretty good at golang. You actually lead the golang LLC group. You just self-taught?

@superwhiskers: I just learned. I tend to read documentation and other things when I'm bored at school, so i guess I just passively absorb the information and put it to use. Go is also just a really simple language. There isn't much to learn about it so when you learn the base concepts you almost know the entire language.

@katyadee : What can I say, I’m still impressed. How’d you find Repl.it?

@superwhiskers: I guess I was just looking for something to write code online with and I found it ¯_(ツ)_/¯

@katyadee : Aw. No story, you really don't remember?

@superwhiskers: There isn't really much that was really interesting, I just found it and decided to use it :)

@katyadee : Ok. Ok. I guess I always expect people to have these cool stories. But usually, we were just the best IDE for their needs, haha.

What’s your favorite language to code in and why?

@superwhiskers: I don't really have "one favorite language" but I kinda like C for the amount of control it gives you while still being practical-ish to use for large things (unlike Assembly).

@katyadee : C is pretty hard, isn't it? I don't know much about it, actually. What kind of things have you created in C?

@superwhiskers: It isn't very hard (at least for me). It's just really verbose. I haven't done much, but I did meme and port crunch over to it and write a question function in it as part of a project to port one function to every language possible. (Seen here)

@katyadee : Based on what I know about you and your projects, you strike me as super capable and proactive. What’s one time you felt really challenged by something while programming and how’d you overcome it?

@superwhiskers: I feel really challenged at finding the motivation to actually work on things. There aren't really many things I’ve found challenging while programming, but I absolutely suck at getting motivated to do something in the first place.

I usually overcome it by just finding something else enjoyable to do and then come back instead of constantly working on project after project without doing something else to keep myself from getting fatigued.

@katyadee : What do you think could help motivate you?

@superwhiskers: Other people wanting to use what I make does a good job.

@katyadee : I like that. I think I’m the same way with things I create.

What are your plans for the future? Do you want to go into tech? If so, what kind?

@superwhiskers: I plan to get some programming-related job, but I don't really know where :/

@katyadee : Hard to tell with that kind of thing, I think. You never know where you’ll end up! What would your dream job be, though?

@superwhiskers: I don't really have one, I just want to be able to enjoy what I do

@katyadee : You’re a lot more practical than I was at your age. I think my answer was something like, “Be a cartoonist,” and I had a really narrow idea of what that meant and where I wanted to work. Fulfilment as a goal… It’s like you’re 30, not 16!

What’s your favorite thing that you’ve built, on or off Repl.it?

@superwhiskers: Well, I have this kinda nice buffer library I've been working on recently that used a bunch of optimization techniques called crunch. It’s probably my best done library, but i think it can be better. Here it is.

@katyadee : Can you explain what a buffer library is, for people who might not know?

@superwhiskers: It's basically a region of data stored in memory. crunch actually uses an array under the hood, (an array can be thought of as a buffer, as it's just data) and edits it when you perform actions on it.

@katyadee : What’s your favorite thing you’ve built on Repl.it?

@superwhiskers: I tend to use Repl.it for smaller snippets of code when I'm away from my development setup, but I do have that sanschat thing that people seemed to enjoy.

@katyadee : I really liked that one, too. What’s the story behind it?

@superwhiskers: it was just a simple chat application I wrote when I was bored in school. There isn't much story behind it besides "it's a chat where all of the text boxes look like Sans Undertale.”

@katyadee : What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone new to code?

@superwhiskers: Learning at your own pace gives better results than having others dictate how you learn. Or at least that's how I've found it to work for me.

@katyadee : You’re like a walking advertisement for why kids should drop out of school and become autodidacts. I hope you know that!

Do you have any tech heroes? Who are they? Why?

@superwhiskers: Not really. I see the point in having someone you look up to for inspiration, but I just don't really find anyone inspiring to me. Idolizing someone only sets you up for disappointment when you realize that nobody is perfect.

@katyadee : That's a really interesting answer to this question... I kind of love it. What inspires you, if not a person in particular?

@superwhiskers: I'm inspired by looking at things other people make and seeing how I can improve upon them.

Developer Spotlight: We're flying out a new intern - all the way from India!

katyadee — Mon, 27 May 2019 19:41:55 +0000

We're back with another Developer Spotlight!

Image courtesy of Dribble

Today, we sat down with Samarth, our summer intern, who's flying all the way from INDIA to work with us in San Francisco, California. We have a lot of really active community members, but Samarth has contributed almost more than anyone. From galleries to tutorials, Samarth is one of our most prolific users. We've got to say, we're pretty thankful for it.

@katyadee : How long have you known about Repl.it? How’d you find us?

@jajoosam : I found Repl.it a while back from @yev on the Hack Club Slack—which is when I signed up. I think I was 15.

I actually first tried it out because of the tutorials challenge, and have been here ever since!

@katyadee : I love our challenges for that reason—I feel like they always attract new folks, who may not have used the service otherwise. We got a lot of neat new folks from the Game Jam, too.

How long have you been coding?

@jajoosam : I first started coding around 4 years ago. JavaScript is my favorite language. It works everywhere, and is the easiest way to deploy and share what I make with others. Even though I started learning to code 4 years ago, I didn't actually make something until 2 years after that. I wrote a ton about my journey here.

@katyadee : Wow, this is really cool! I come from a fine arts background, and a lot of this advice is applicable there, too—keep creating, keep reading, and just get out there and do it. Also really digging your story about reaching out to Jeff Bezos. Looks like you have a track record with getting companies’ attention!

This all has me wondering—what’s the coding landscape for students like in India?

@jajoosam : Computer science in schools is not really taken seriously—but I've seen that those who really want to make something figure out how to code on the way. Sometimes people learn how to code just because it's a 'smart' skill to develop—but don't really end up making original things and sharing them.

I've tried to make a small impact on a few people in my school by starting a Hack Club in my school and they really like Repl.it because we don't spend time setting things up, and jump right into learning and making!

@katyadee : It kinds of surprises me to hear that it’s not really taken seriously—I guess it’s kind of the same here, especially since we have a shortage of comp sci teachers… but a lot of interest. It’s a little confusing, isn’t it?

What do you think causes the disparity?

@jajoosam : I think the learning part of comuter science is emphasized a lot, and people would really start understanding its value once they actually make something, and take it seriously.

@katyadee : To circle back for a second… Do you teach people to code at Hack Club? What's that like? What kinds of things do you do?

@jajoosam : Yes, I teach them to code, and it's awesome! The best part is seeing their own twist on the projects we make. Each workshop starts with everyone making the same project, but by the end we have 10 different things. Until now, we've made Chrome extensions, web apps (web scraping), chat bots (Whatsapp!) - and games on pico8.

@katyadee : One of my favorite things about you is how prolific—and creative—you are. I know a lot about the kind of work you’re doing on Repl.it, but now seems like as good a time as any to shine a spotlight on it! What are some of your favorite projects?

@jajoosam : Too many! Here’s a site dedicated to it.

Editor’s note: please find the top two below, but be sure to check out the full line up here.

Mathe Carlo is an explorable explanation, where the player gets to use a bruteforce methord to discover Pi. It was a very interesting project to make, got me to use stuff I learned in geometry from a couple of years ago!

4ty2 Hunt was a submission to the AI challenge on repl.it - and one of the most fun things I've ever made. You gotta actually move your laptop all around the house to complete a scavenger hunt!

@katyadee : When did you start talking to Amjad? How did notice you?

@jajoosam : Wow, I had to dig up Twitter history for this! I first discovered Amjad talking about repl.run on Twitter, and shared something I'd made with him there. From there, I started using Repl.it more, and when I saw Repl.it/jobs, I emailed him! We scheduled a call, and I started making tutorials for repl.it!

Editor’s Note: Check out some of @jajoosam’s tutorials here

@katyadee : So, it’s no surprise you got this internship! What’s the story behind it?

@jajoosam : I realized Repl.it took interns when I saw this tweet and DMd Amjad too apply. He said yes!!
I'm super excited to have my work actually used by so many awesome Repl.it users, meeting the Repl.it team and flying down to Silicon Valley! During the internship, I'm working on creating a simple, secure storage solution for repls (starting with HTML!), along with making the Repl.it community a more core feature of the product!

@katyadee : Heck yeah, I can get behind that! Especially the community stuff! Haha. Is this your first internship?

@jajoosam : No, but it's the most exciting one! I've interned with a couple of startups here in India previously. Here’s a project I made at my first internship kinda thing 3 years ago. 😝

@katyadee : Hey, it’s still a pretty cool program. I gotta ask… How did your parents feel when they found out we were flying you out to CA?

@jajoosam : They're super excited for me and feel proud! A little bit worried too, but that's just them being parents 😉

@katyadee : It is one these crazy stories. But that seems to be Amjad’s style. I love it. What are you most looking forward to doing in my favorite American city, San Francisco?

@jajoosam : Making stuff at Repl.it of course, along with (hopefully!) getting to meet some awesome people I've only seen on Twitter! This is so crazy - can't believe I'll be there in 5 days!
If y'all have any suggestions hit me up.

Developer Spotlight: 9-Year-Old Programmer Simon Tiger

katyadee — Tue, 21 May 2019 19:34:32 +0000

Welcome to another Developer Spotlight!

Today we (virtually) sat down with 9-year-old Belgium-based wunderkind Simon Tiger and his mom, Sophia.

Simon came to our attention after he shared a repl of a neural network he’d built.

Without further ado, here’s our interview:

@katyadee : If you could sum yourself up in one sentence, how would you do it?

@simontiger: This would sound a bit circular, but I would say: "To sum me up in one sentence: You can't sum me up in one sentence.”

@katyadee : I think that actually says a lot! You’re really well spoken—are you really 9 years old?

@simontiger: Turning 10 soon.

@katyadee : Wow. So, are you in school?

@simontiger: No, I’m homeschooled. We even had to move to Belgium to be able to homeschool, because school is mandatory in the Netherlands (where I'm from), and it didn't fit well with me.

@katyadee : That’s really cool that you guys find a way to make it work. I really like your mom’s site. It says you’re a mathematician… I’m wondering, what does that mean to you? Are you doing research?

@simontiger: Well, that's a difficult question. I see patterns in the world wherever I look. I just love doing math, I'm doing math loads of time every day. Like I'm writing a short book about knot theory and experimenting with knots. Or I want to use Penrose's Illumination Problem in my coding. And I make math videos. Ron Graham said he liked my video about the Graham Scan Algorithm! 

@katyadee : I’m blown away. Ron Graham - that’s no joke! Speaking of coding, how’d you start?

@simontiger: With Arduino and Sparkfun. And I discovered Arduino through littleBits. Arduino was how I discovered Processing, and how I discovered Coding Train by Daniel Shiffman. He always watches my videos and has become my friend. And I participate in Coding Train Live Sessions in Slack, too.

@katyadee : Wow! Where’d you go from there, after Arduino? What was your first language?

@SimonTiger: Surprisingly, not English! It’s not my native language. I taught myself English by watching coding videos, mainly. My actual native languages are Dutch and Russian.

@katyadee : Oh, I meant programming language! I’m sorry.

@SimonTiger: After C, with Arduino, I started using all sorts of languages for a while but now I have settled on JS, Java, Python, and sometimes Haskell. And sometimes even the Wolfram language!

@katyadee : What brought you to Repl.it?

@SimonTiger: I was first just looking for an online Python editor, because my computer memory was (and still is!) almost full. I first found onlinegdb.com, but then, after a while, my code disappeared! And then I started using Repl.it. And now I even no longer only use Python on Repl.it, but also JS. I one time tried to use Haskell on Repl.it, but that didn't really work for my purpose, because the browser runs on JS which is a strict language, and Haskell is a lazy language.

@katyadee : What’s your favorite thing you’re building on Repl.it?

@SimonTiger: Pretty much all of my repls are a work-in-progress. Here are two:
Raytracing A.I.
Sorting Algorithms

@katyadee : One last question for ya. What are your plans for the future? Your present is pretty darn cool.

@SimonTiger: Depends on what you mean. More coding, math, and physics—if that counts.

So... who exactly won the #ReplitGameJam?

katyadee — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 23:46:20 +0000

At repl.it, we recently hosted a game jam with a grand prize of 1BTC, generously provided by Satoshi's Treasure! Learn more about the jam (and our winners) here.

We (virtually) sat down with our winners ggzor and MarisolH to talk about their coding background, what they plan to do with the 1BTC, and of course, their game, SceneMachine.

Katya: First of all, congratulations! The team here at repl.it and our judges loved your game, SceneMachine.

ggzor: Hi! I'm just shocked! :O It's incredible! I didn't think we could win the Game Jam, it's just... I'm really shocked. Thank you a lot!

Katya: We know your usernames, and we know your game. Who’s behind @ggzor and @MarisolH?

ggzor: I’m Axel. I’m 19 yars old and I study computer science in Puebla, Mexico. I’m a young programmer who loves to code—I’m really passionate about functional programming.   My teammate, Marisol, is also 19 and studying CS in Puebla. She is more passionate about design and cats.

Katya: How did you hear about the game jam?

ggzor: I saw the game jam badge while I was working on a repl. I didn’t immediately go to the blog, but I was curious about it… After I finally read it, I started thinking about what to do.

Katya: Had you ever made a game before?

ggzor: The only game I made before was a little private project. I never finished it, but I plan to finish it soon.

Katya: How did the idea for SceneMachine come about? What's the story behind the game? 

ggzor: Well, the SceneMachine was an idea I had right after reading the Game Jam post. I am really excited about reactive programming (RxJS), so I wanted to make a game about it.

I really love how stream operators mix and match, so I first thought of replicating operators in the game. The original idea was to make a "pipes" game, but then, I was watching some videos from “The Coding Train” and how he used the Matter.js library to make awesome stuff (he was creating an Angry Birds replica), so I got inspired to create something similar, but with additional "elements" which were intended to work as the RxJS operators.

It was a little bit hard to me to think how to create the game mechanics without pipes, because some basic RxJS operators are all about pipes (streams). Additionally, the physics add another dimension to the game, so I discarded the idea of replicating the operators. But the idea of composing elements to complete objectives (there was no story at this point), was just incredible for me.

Here the name "SceneMachine" was born. You put elements into the scene to create your own machine.

Katya: How long did it take you to design? What was your work process like? 

ggzor: It wasn’t completely planned.

I began playing with the Matter.js physics library and the SVG.js library, and I was trying to make them work well together. Then, I found that Matter.js had a SVG parser, so I started designing a quick level with Inkscape. After designing a simple level, I tried to display it on the screen and make it work with Matter.js.

It took me a complete day to make it work, but when it was done, I realized the potential of designing the levels with an SVG tool, and then loading them into the game.  After getting level loading to work, I realized that I would need a game scene camera. So I started programming the camera, but I wanted to do it with RxJS. It was painful. I had not used RxJS for this kind of stuff before, so I fell into the many pitfalls of reactive programming. It took me four days to get it working properly.

Fortunately, I eventually got it working, I learned a lot and I got enormous flexibility from the implementation (I didn't take full advantage of all the features the implementation gave me, as automatic positioning, zoom and object tracking).

Now, I had to manage game state. How to do it? RxJS. Result: still painful.
It took me another three days to try making RxJS handle the game state, but this time, I failed. By this time, I was already working on the UI, so, when I tried to join the state management and UI, they didn't work. So I changed my approach, and let the UI code guide the game state design.

Finally, this gave me a solid state management implementation (which I didn't have time to refactor). This is what let me implement cool features like the physics engine pausing.

The last two weeks, I worked designing and implementing the elements (with RxJS, of course) and polishing many parts of the game. This time, it was way easier two make RxJS work well, as I got more fluent with RxJS for this kind of stuff.

Finally, the last week was really intensive, I had to work night and day designing and testing the levels. In-game tips were hard to implement.

The reason I used HTML/CSS/Javascript is because it is supported natively by almost any computer. Also, because it's the main technology I've been working at recently and also because it's ease of use.

Katya: What inspired the storyline?

ggzor: The story was inspired by the movie “The Core" (2003). I really liked this movie since I was a child.

Katya: How did you and @MarisolH find one another? 

ggzor: I worked with @MarisolH before, making some illustrations with Inkscape for a school project. She is an amazing drawer, so I didn't doubt telling her about the project I was working on. She did amazing work designing the backgrounds, and even designing some levels (level 3, 5 and the two maze levels).

She also helped me test the game, I really appreciate her work. As I have said before, this game wouldn't be possible without her help.

Katya: Do you plan on fleshing the game out, and making it bigger? Any plans for a wider release?

ggzor: Yes! I plan to continue working on this idea. But maybe I will take a different approach to make games. I've learned a lot from this project, I haven't made anything like this before (it impresses myself a lot!). I loved how RxJS let me write clean game state management and user interaction. I think that with more time, I could do something really cool.

Katya: What are you going to do with the 1BTC?

ggzor: Well, we didn't make plans to spend the Bitcoin, but I think we both will get better computers to continue making games.