Vent: My coding bootcamp in Austin pushed Python hard, but I think that's a mistake for total beginners.

Last week, I spent 15 hours helping my nephew, who's never coded before, try to set up his Python environment and it was a mess of errors. Everyone says start with Python because it's 'easy', but getting the interpreter, pip, and a proper IDE running is not simple for someone who just learned what a file is. I think we should go back to teaching plain JavaScript in the browser first, where you can just open a console and see results. Has anyone else had a beginner get totally stuck on setup before writing a single line of code?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_ivan5d ago

Honestly you're totally right about Python setup being a nightmare for new people. Tbh I tried helping my cousin last month and we lost a whole weekend just fighting with PATH errors and broken pip installs. Ngl it's crazy we tell beginners to start with something that needs so much work before you even write "hello world". JavaScript in the browser is way better because you just hit F12 and start typing, no install mess at all.

carr.jana5d ago

Wait, a WHOLE weekend, @the_ivan?

kai_bennett5d ago

Absolutely! I had the same thing happen trying to help my neighbor's kid. We spent an entire evening just wrestling with a virtual environment that wouldn't activate, and pip was refusing to install anything. The kid just wanted to make a little number guessing game, but we never got past the setup. It completely kills the excitement. Opening a browser and using the console is instant, no fight needed.