Kyle,

Along those lines, I'd say the first place I started learning to be a coder
was writing Excel functions. It was where I learned, in a very basic way,
the ideas of looping through a set, defining and using variables and
constants, etc. The first time I successfully completed an hours worth of
data report drudgery in a few minutes, I was hooked.

But more importantly, I started thinking differently. The data I dealt with
every day suddenly became much more usable and malleable; I really
understood the value of naming conventions, structured data, etc.

Yes I had (and still have) a lot more to learn, but as Jonathan Rochkind
puts it<http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/computational-thinking-getting-started/>,
I had begun thinking computationally about the the everyday problems in my
library. I wouldn't have self-identified as a coder then, but that shift in
thinking certainly started me on the path to becoming a coder.

Chad


On Feb 15, 2013 8:22 AM, "Kyle Banerjee" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 7:40 AM, Jason Griffey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people have absolutely no clue
how
> > code translates into instructions for the magic glowing screen they
look at
> > all day. Even a tiny bit of empowerment in that arena can make huge
> > differences in productivity and communication abilities
> >
>
> This is what it boils down to.
>
> C4l is dominated by linux based web apps. For people in a typical office
> setting, the technologies these involve are a lousy place to start
learning
> to program. What most of them need is very different than what is
discussed
> here and it depends heavily on their use case and environment.
>
> A bit of VBA, vbs, or some proprietary scripting language that interfaces
> with an app they use all the time to help with a small problem is a more
> realistic entry point for most people. However, discussion of such things
> is practically nonexistent here.
>
> IMO, the first step to removing the magic around coding is to help people
> recognize opportunities provided by the tools they're already using every
> day. Once they realize there is no magic, they can pick up anything they
> like.
>
> kyle