Re:Microsoft Tilecode
by jamesadevine on Sunday October 25, 2020 @02:40AM
(#24884280)
Just FYI, TileCode is written using MakeCode Arcade:
> It's a pity that computing got so complicated
I disagree. For me it's much simpler now:
- Use python :)
I learned using a variety of languages from calculator assembly to C++ to GUI game scripting languages. Each had its quirks and C/C++ boilerplate definitely created friction. I was always really easy to write complicated algorithms and math but doing anything practical alluded me.
Now with python you're one library away from doing anything really interesting. There's almost zero boilerplate. 'import pygame' and with a bit of googling and basic knowledge you're off to making a pretty cool game! (learning physics, algorithms and more along the way)
I remember another MS project (which I just had to look up). It was called MakeCode https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/makecode and I remember it because they had a nice Minecraft integration. Well... it still exists: https://minecraft.makecode.com/
So to go on a bit of a rant: there's Scratch, MakeCode, Tilecode now, on top of "fantasy consoles" and dozens of very easy-to-use game engines (like, really, lots of them, in the browser, native... way below the Unity and Godot stepping stones). You know what's sad? Somehow I feel like we can't solve this barrier to entry for casual coding. On the one hand, a teacher or parent wanting to teach their kid(s) is overwhelmed with choice. On the other hand there's the attention economy basically saying: "don't bother."
Later on in the academic career, you have lecturers either having to overwhelm students (especially non-CS students) with all the best practices at once (you need this IDE, and GIT, and tests...) or having to resort to something which looks like it's made for kids and "won't make it in the real world" (speaking from experience here).
It's a pity that computing got so complicated. This is a hard problem to solve. Nonetheless, I applaud any efforts made towards this.