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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