I agree, unless you're typing raw hex codes into the instruction pipeline, you're not really programming. And truthfully, I'd prefer manipulating gates by hand. Otherwise, how do you know you're really talking to the machine.

I hate high-level amateurs like you, diluting this serious and noble craft with your hex codes. If you're not etching the silicon yourself, it's ephemeral fluff. Get serious.

Why is programming or understanding how the device works considered more important than learning another language to speak to other people?

Many HN readers earn a living from programming skills they developed by exploring computers aimlessly as kids in the 1990s and 2000s. I’m a Duolingo addict who has used the app daily for more than three years, so I do think it’s a fun way to build basic language skills. But no matter how much time I spend in the app, I won’t learn how it works or get the ability to change, modify or develop it. The learning experience is stage-managed by a company and funded by ads displayed between the lessons. It is very different to my experience of learning to write HTML and PHP when I was in high school.

> But no matter how much time I spend in the app, I won’t learn how it works or get the ability to change, modify or develop it.

Who cares? Just because you and many others on HN learned some stuff from fiddling with some computers doesn't mean that learning a language is lesser.

"Ah, you aren't doing things that I did as a kid that lead to my high income! You're trash, kid! Git gud!"

My point isn’t about coding versus learning languages, it’s about open-ended creative activities versus ad-sponsored iOS games. Don’t get me wrong, I like playing the games too!

as someone who finds the kind of programming possible on iOS extremely primitive, I still find your comment disingenuous. Kids even creating and uploading tiktoks, or messing around with their friends creations in roblox or even trying Swift Playgrounds is miles more useful than... learning pascal and assembly to make the most boring game ever.

kids have access to magic these days, while algorithmic abuse is rampant, thats not an iPad's core proposition.

I started off with an extremely primitive locked down programming environment. It's called lua and I used it to mod games.

> Is anything you listed even remotely on the same level as "assembly language and pascal with s3m libraries to program a game"

Wasm and WebGL certainly are.

Has anyone ever learned those languages on an iPad though? Even if you know a few languages already, learning a new one by writing software on a device with a small screen, no keyboard, no filesystem, no native app IDE, no browser debugger, and severely limited multitasking, seems almost impossible to me. If I had an iPad rather than a computer running Windows 95 when I was growing up, I don’t think I’d know how to code today.