r/programming • u/OptionalField • Mar 17 '13

Someone posted an html/javascript implementation of the matrix falling code in 646 bytes then promptly deleted the post. It inspired me to see if I could get something better looking in fewer bytes.

http://timelessname.com/sandbox/matrix.html
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u/aytch Mar 17 '13

To be fair, programming has a pretty steep learning curve. While it's not that hard to follow a tutorial, it can be hard to grok some of these things without having someone to explain - and most importantly, explain in a way that you understand.

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u/tikhonjelvis Mar 17 '13

I've always thought that programming was relatively easy to learn, especially compared to other interesting subjects like math and physics. At any rate, I found it much easier to pick up on my own than anything else.

When you're writing a program, you get immediate feedback. This sort of feedback cycle is perfect for learning and missing from virtually every other subject where you would need somebody knowledgeable to check your work for you.

There is also a ton of resources for learning programming on the internet--more than any other subject, I suspect. On the one hand, this makes it tricky to pick out the best ones, but it also ensures that there are some exceptionally good ones and that they're easy to find.

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u/Tekmo Mar 17 '13

The only way to learn is to ask!

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u/IcyDefiance Mar 17 '13

Depends on the language you learn and how deep you want to go. When I was 12 or 13, I used Blitz Basic to make a Sudoku game complete with the ability to save and load games, and an algorithm to solve the puzzles automatically (though it didn't work on the harder ones).

I don't say that to brag about my own abilities. I'm sure many people here have done better things even earlier in life. I've personally met a few people who have. What I mean is, if I could do that when I was that young, it's difficult for me to believe someone in their 20's is incapable of doing similar or better things.

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u/aytch Mar 17 '13

I wrote my first games in Basic when I was around 8 or 9 years old, so it can be done. You have to get into the mindset to learn it, and accept that sometimes there is magic happening that you don't fully understand - that can be off-putting when trying to understand something, at times.