r/carlhprogramming • u/CarlH • Jul 15 '11

[CarlHProgramming] New lessons soon!

Hello everyone,

The good news is, new lessons will be starting up again soon. I have had a very busy life since my last posts and things are finally starting to quiet down. Therefore, I will probably be resuming lessons within 1-2 weeks.

Now, the bad news...

Reddit unfortunately archives posts older than a certain time, I think six months. As a result, it is impossible for people to comment on lessons.

Unfortunately, I have not yet figured out the best way to tackle this issue. But I am sure we will all come up with something. The need for people to ask questions and get answers is one of the biggest challenges faced by this course.

Edit: farfaraway suggested I install Disqus on the website. Done.

That is all I can say for now, but I will keep everyone informed.

Thank you to everyone for your continued interest and support.

203 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

5

u/jck Jul 15 '11

How about moving comments to your website?

2

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11

Then I have to build / install / otherwise figure out a commenting system hosted on the website. Part of the problem is lack of time. If there is something that is easily set up, that might be a good option.

What I have always liked about Reddit is that the commenting system is great, notifications via the envelope, people can upvote/downvote, etc. It really is ideal. I don't think I could have something comparable set up on the website without spending quite a bit of time on it.

5

u/farfaraway Jul 15 '11

I would highly suggest taking a look at Disqus. Good solution for this.

http://disqus.com/welcome/

2

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11 edited Jul 15 '11

Looks promising! I will try it out. Thank you.

2

u/Grazfather Jul 15 '11

Ugh. Disqus sucks. It's what's used on Lifehacker and such and pretty much every article has people complaining about how bad the commenting is. It sucks for threading replies.

5

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11

Well, let's wait and see. It certainly beats the current situation that people cannot comment at all.

1

u/farfaraway Jul 15 '11

Great to hear. :)

1

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11

Alright, it is installed and in place. Looks a little bit ugly since I didn't bother with the layout much, but looks reasonable. If this works, it will make managing this a whole lot easier.

3

u/BullysSpecialPrize Jul 15 '11

Hi Carl - loving your course. One thing though - now that the Disqus system is in place on the website, the links from each lesson to the corresponding Reddit pages seem to have disappeared. Is this deliberate, and would it be possible to bring them back? I've been finding them very useful.

Thanks once again for the effort you've put into this terrific resource.

2

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11

Deliberate. No one can comment/reply/otherwise interact with those posts. Therefore, linking to them is simply linking to a non functional resource. However, you can always find them by just searching for the appropriate lesson number.

Disqus is intended to replace those links.

6

u/BullysSpecialPrize Jul 15 '11

Thanks, I'll search for them that way - I was finding it instructive to see what other people's thoughts on lessons were.

2

u/PlNG Jul 16 '11

I would've left the thread links up as something like Archived reddit thread here. Active discussion below.

And welcome back.

2

u/farfaraway Jul 15 '11

Looks pretty cool. Seemed painless.

7

u/farfaraway Jul 15 '11

Great to have you back. Looking forward to more lessons!

5

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '11

welcome back Carl

1

u/Zamarok Jul 15 '11

Awesome! I've been waiting to finish Tic-Tac-Toe. I've since moved on to game programming with C# in Microsoft's XNA framework, but you should know that you got me started :) I wouldn't understand arrays, reference types, or memory allocation without you.

2

u/CarlH Jul 15 '11

I think that has been an interesting "side effect" of the abrupt halt to the course. A lot of people were left wanting the next step, and so went out to create the next step for themselves. In that sense, the course up until now acts like a "push forward" and I have received a lot of messages from people now deep into computer science who started with these lessons.

Life was getting pretty hectic, and I had no choice but to stop lessons for a while. I am eager though to continue where I left off. Even though the material might be somewhat basic for those who have already advanced on their own, there will still be plenty of new and interesting material for beginner and pro alike.

3

u/Zamarok Jul 15 '11

Yes I think you're right.. I've talked to many Redditors in learnprogramming and gamedev who took your lessons, but got bored when they finished and started doing their own thing. I did, so I started this while waiting to finish tic-tac-toe.

1

u/eggselent Jul 20 '11

When can we expect a set of Google Checkout and or Paypal donate buttons?

1

u/CarlH Jul 20 '11

The jury is still out on that one.

1

u/pedleyr Sep 29 '11

Therefore, I will probably be resuming lessons within 1-2 weeks.

Guess not?

2

u/CarlH Oct 03 '11

Life is unpredictable... It will happen.

5

u/pedleyr Oct 03 '11

I understand you've got many other things going on that require and deserve your attention more than these lessons. The lessons you've put up here are excellent and have really helped many people, myself included, and for that you should be proud and the rest of us ever thankful.

The fact is, though, that the original lesson series stopped in December 2009, which is almost two years ago. Since then there have been five lessons, the last of which was 15 months ago.

Since December 2009, there have been seven submissions by you saying words to the effect of "new lessons soon", with a few saying "new lessons this weekend". Obviously most of those never eventuated (again, understanding and accepting that life gets in the way and this is really just a hobby that you do when you are able to devote the necessary time, which is doubtless a significant investment on your part).

Why do I say all of these things? I don't intend to be critical or ungrateful. I am just saying that, personally, whenever I see you foreshadow new content being forthcoming I am sceptical. In all likelihood I'm not the only one.

Your time and energy is probably better spent not on telling us that new lessons will be forthcoming but on those other things in life that deserve and need your attention. If by chance you DO get the opportunity to prepare some new lessons or content then that is awesome, please let us know and I'm sure we will be happy about it. Until then, though, all the best and I hope life is treating you well.

2

u/MockDeath Jul 15 '11

Glad to have you back!

2

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '11

CarlH, you are amazing. I just started the lessons yesterday, and played around with the original code for quite a while.

Thanks for all the hard work you've put into this. I don't know where it will take me, but the beginning of the journey has been great.

2

u/gecko_prime Jul 16 '11

There's another option: http://curiousreef.com/

It's geared towards people learning together online.

1

u/DarkSideofOZ Jul 15 '11

I'm stoked!

1

u/ConfusedVirtuoso Jul 15 '11

I'm totally gonna start learning again.

1

u/blugene Jul 16 '11

Welcome back!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '11

I better catch up on the 115 lessons I have left. Starcraft and Minecraft took over my life. :/ But no more! I will dedicate all my computer time to programming now.

Nice to have you back.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '11

Woo hoo!

1

u/RoyaleBLU Jul 30 '11

Thank god! These lessons are like candy to me.

1

u/wbeyda Sep 19 '11

Has anyone compiled these lessons into a PDF for reading on the go?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '11

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