Trying to Make Programming Easier
FleetingFollowing the article can programming be easier?, a friend of mine and I decided to try to make him write his own version of the project describe in the article. He wins by getting his project done, I win by being able to analyse a real life example helping me to figure out what is actually not that easy.
He already has basic knowledge in JavaScript (in the browser and using node) and php.
He does not want to use nodejs in the server side. He would rather use php.
Also, he seems to have a hard time getting the difference between the server and the client. On the other hand, he also has a hard time understanding that the web page can work without a server counter part.
He seems focused on what he knows, so I guess I should try to bode with that. When I suggested some python or js code in the server part, he insisted on using php. Sounds like a serendipitous challenge to me.
He did no see the point of serving scaled versions of the photograph. That made me realize that I should think about what my (hopefully educated) system 1 tells me to avoid overwhelming him with too much details at once. He has time to make the (supposed) mistake of loading full size image and recover from it. My intuition tells me that it is a better way to learn not only that loading full size images is not practical, but also that programming project allows several cycles of trials and errors.
It also helps me understand another points that make programming not as easy as I thought. It pinpoints the intuitions I now have that are learned from my experience.
After being explained that I won’t try to harass him in doing the project and let him lead the project, I never heard about it anymore.