first of all: I really do like this site and i think its a great way of starting to code. I also do think that i learned a lot in a short time, but: this site really has some severe problems. Let me explain.
Now first of all, as a Windows user that has no prior experience to coding and stuff i feel a bit left out so to speak. Most of the Instructions are for Mac users (thats what it feels like) and the guides for (fe) installing Bash on Win11 are utter garbage since they wont help a bit when a problem occurs.
Then there ist Jupyter Notebook. I understand that programmers seem to love Jupyter Notebook but i cant find a any instructions on this site on how to properly use it. Even worse, there are articels recommended that dont seem to exist any more (505 service not available or whatever).
When you figured out how to use ist, the instructions and especially the solutions are just lazy. There are formulars and mehtods never used before, and there ist no way of checking if your answers are correct. Additionally some instructions seem to be outdated (refers to stocks from 2018, loads stock information from 2019 (???)) It feels like being thrown into cold water.
So i cant be sure that i have setup my coding environment properly and i dont really know how to use Jupyter Notebook which seems to be important.
Now you could argue that i could help myself with different online ressources (which is what i did anyways). But thats the point: I could learn coding with other ressources i DIDNT HAVE TO PAY FOR. What is the point in paying for a programming course when it just leaving out fundamental concepts???
Again, i think i learned a lot and i would definetly recommend Codecademy to friends, but not for this price and only when they fix these issues. Its super frustrating…
You bring up many valid points. I think it would help your case if you linked to the specific areas in the courses/lessons to support your arguments/points.
If you search here (the forums), you’ll find many, many topics about troubles installing Jupyter (on both O/S and Windows)…this has been an issue for years. (not an excuse).
In the meantime, as an alternative (or complement) to Jupyter (while important to know), you could use Google Colab. It’s built like Jupyter but cloud-based and you can write and execute Python code in it. I know that doesn’t solve the issues with Jupyter, but it’s something to research and use.
You’re right, i don’t bring up any specific courses or areas, mainly because I am the type of person that wants to solve problems instantly instead of waiting for someone to help. Yet, when fe a link to an article doesn’t work, i dont think that writing a thread in this forum would help since a. it wont help me and b. i think it wouldn’t help others since c. they obviously haven’t fixed this issue over the past years. And while these are all rather small issues, they add up to a fundamental problem i wanted to address.
Now I think its normal to get frustrated with new things you want to learn. You will always get to the point where you just want to quit. But the better your teacher/mentor and the later this moment comes in your journey, the more likely it is that you may go on a break but return after a short while.
Codecademy is a great way to learn coding, and it is about 75% perfect with the build in code editor, the step-by-step approach, projects and so on. But there comes a point you want to link what you learned to the real world (to your own computer). And it is at that very step that Codecademy fails. Which is sad to say the least beacuse imo it has huge potential and is, as i mentioned, already very very good. So i’m not angry about Codecademy per se but about the potential that gets thrown over board by lazy, half-cooked tutorials, links and projects.
I know that many of the problems i have can be found here in similar threads but the problems i have cant be solved here, they have to be solved by codecademy, bc thats what many people here paid for. That however doens’t mean that i never received help by this community, especially when it comes to questions of substance that really are about coding. Also, ChatGPT has really been my best friend in regards of fixing code or explaining it.
Thanks for the hint with Google colab, i’ll check it out
I am pretty much the same way. I need to figure things out for myself first/multiple times before I ask for help.
Yep, it’s totally normal to get frustrated. Not that it’s any consolation here, but everyone does (if they say they don’t, they’re lying. ) I say it all the time (to also remind myself) that thinking computationally is a learned skill. It takes time…
Just remember, the folks who write, or have written, these courses are fallible (just like us). I am sure that any constructive criticisms are welcomed by them. There’s always room for improvement in the courses. If there are broken links, the definitely report them to CS so they can be fixed.
That said, I don’t think one should utilize just one source when learning to code. Not one resource is going to explain things in a way that you will get 100%. I also wouldn’t rely on CGPT too much b/c who knows where the training data came for the models? Who knows the veracity of it? That, and I think it kind of devalues the idea of curiosity & creativity (and critical thinking) of learning to search for answers on one’s own which is a skill in itself.
I can understand the appeal of Jupyter, since you can use it to create something akin to an electronic “course book”, but personally I can’t stand it. I’d much rather have the direct interpreter/IDLE/VSCode.
CC can’t take all the blame in this arena, I’m afraid. Compared to Linux or MacOS, Windows isn’t quite as easy to get set up for some of this stuff - like, for example, Git needing a bash emulator to work…
What I would suggest to you, if your device is up to it (should be if it’s running Win11), is looking into the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Essentially it’s a “headless” Hyper-V virtual machine, but it means you can run a Linux distribution within Windows.
If you download the “Terminal” app from their store you can use the Windows CLI/PowerShell and access the CLI for your Linux distro(s) from one place, and VSCode also integrates with it so you can work on a folder in the Linux VM from VSCode on your regular desktop.
I use WSL extensively with Debian/Ubuntu images - again, easily installable via the Windows Store - and it’s sooooooo much easier than getting Windows to play nice with Git and everything else (like Python, pipenv, Git…).
) I say it all the time (to also remind myself) that thinking computationally is a learned skill. It takes time…
