I don’t know whether this particular project will bear fruit.
There’s a non-empty reference class of previous efforts to create visual programming languages, including e.g. Prograph, and the success rate so far is very low (Scratch is perhaps a notable exception, making inroads in the unfortunately small “teach kids to program” community.)
To be fair, Subtext looks superficially like it does have some novel ideas, and actually differs from its predecessors.
Be careful with the implied equation of “visual” with “intuitive”. They don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other.
ETA: I’ve tried downloading the current version to see if I could do something simple with it, such as a FizzBuzz implementation. No dice; the .exe won’t start. Maybe the program has dependencies that are not fulfilled on my (virtual) Windows box and it fails silently, or something else is wrong. Updating on the experience, I wouldn’t expect very much from this effort. It’s literally a non-starter.
I started a couple of my younger brothers and sisters on Scratch, and they got quite far. Now my sixth grade brother has downloaded a mod for his digital camera, and he wrote a calculator program in Lua for it. And my fifth grade sister has been teaching herself Python using this book:
On a tangent (and just for my curiosity), can you explain/link an explanation of what the phrase “non-empty reference class” means? I infer from context it means that there is a non-empty set of instances, but what is the meaning of this specific ‘reference class’ wording?
By reference class I mean “the set of things that are like Subtext that I’d use to get my prior probability of success from, before updating on the specific merits of Subtext (or its flaws)”.
I’ve acquired the term both from previous discussions here on LW and from slightly more formal training in forecasting, specifically participating in the Good Judgment Project.
There are perils of forecasting based on reference classes (more), but it can be a useful heuristic.
There’s a non-empty reference class of previous efforts to create visual programming languages, including e.g. Prograph, and the success rate so far is very low (Scratch is perhaps a notable exception, making inroads in the unfortunately small “teach kids to program” community.)
To be fair, Subtext looks superficially like it does have some novel ideas, and actually differs from its predecessors.
Be careful with the implied equation of “visual” with “intuitive”. They don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other.
ETA: I’ve tried downloading the current version to see if I could do something simple with it, such as a FizzBuzz implementation. No dice; the .exe won’t start. Maybe the program has dependencies that are not fulfilled on my (virtual) Windows box and it fails silently, or something else is wrong. Updating on the experience, I wouldn’t expect very much from this effort. It’s literally a non-starter.
I started a couple of my younger brothers and sisters on Scratch, and they got quite far. Now my sixth grade brother has downloaded a mod for his digital camera, and he wrote a calculator program in Lua for it. And my fifth grade sister has been teaching herself Python using this book:
http://www.briggs.net.nz/snake-wrangling-for-kids.html
On a tangent (and just for my curiosity), can you explain/link an explanation of what the phrase “non-empty reference class” means? I infer from context it means that there is a non-empty set of instances, but what is the meaning of this specific ‘reference class’ wording?
By reference class I mean “the set of things that are like Subtext that I’d use to get my prior probability of success from, before updating on the specific merits of Subtext (or its flaws)”.
I’ve acquired the term both from previous discussions here on LW and from slightly more formal training in forecasting, specifically participating in the Good Judgment Project.
There are perils of forecasting based on reference classes (more), but it can be a useful heuristic.
I suspect it is “Previous Similar Attempts,” useful in avoiding Planning Fallacy and as fault analysis material.