# I am the Watcher. I am your guide through this vast new twtiverse.
# 
# Usage:
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/users              View list of users and latest twt date.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt                View all twts.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/mentions?uri=:uri  View all mentions for uri.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/conv/:hash         View all twts for a conversation subject.
# 
# Options:
#     uri     Filter to show a specific users twts.
#     offset  Start index for quey.
#     limit   Count of items to return (going back in time).
# 
# twt range = 1 5
# self = https://watcher.sour.is/conv/xtsryia
movq
www.uninformativ.de
View Thread
To the parents or teachers: How do you teach kids to program these days? 🤔
movq
www.uninformativ.de
View Thread
I should probably clarify: Which language/platform? Something graphical or web-based right from the beginning or do you start with a console program?
lyse
lyse.isobeef.org
View Thread
@movq I started with Delphi in school, the book (that we never ever used even once and I also never looked at) taught Pascal. The UI part felt easy at first but prevented me from understanding fundamental stuff like procedures or functions or even begin and end blocks for ifs or loops. For example I always thought that I needed to have a button somewhere, even if hidden. That gave me a handler procedure where I could put code and somehow call it. Two or three years later, a new mate from the parallel class finally told me that this wasn't necessary and how to do thing better.

You know all too well that back in the day there was not a whole lot of information out there. And the bits that did exist were well hidden. At least from me. Eventually discovering planet-quellcodes.de (I don't remember if that was the original forum or if that got split off from some other board) via my best schoolmate was like finding the Amber Room. Yeah, reading the ITG book would have been a very good idea for sure. :-)

In hindsight, a console program without the UI overhead might have been better. At least for the very start. Much less things to worry about or get lost.

Hence, I'd recommend to start programming with a console program. As for the language, not sure. But Python is probably a good choice, it doesn't require a lot of surrounding boilerplate like, say Java or Go. It also does exceptionally well in the principle of least surprise.
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@movq I've tried and there's little interest so I've given up for now 😭
xuu
txt.sour.is
View Thread
@lyse hey pascal bro! My first coding class was with an old Borland Turbo Pascal. I made my own little window manager for the assignments for class.

The teacher didn't appreciate it much since I had to print out the code to turn it in. My Yatzee game was a stack of pages. 🤪