How One Developer Got the Internet To Watch People Code 65
blottsie writes: While Twitch TV is generally used for livestreaming gameplay, Alexander Putilin has other plans for the platform. Putilin and his girlfriend are using Twitch to build a community of software developers and students who broadcast complex floating point operations and algorithm design to the rest of the world. The community is responding and growing alongside its newfound popularity. WatchPeopleCode is now facilitating live hackathons (there was one this weekend), enabling programmers to meet and collaborate with people that they'd otherwise never be able to.
and produced (Score:3, Funny)
the first A.I. yawn
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't believe it, then the AIs have already got to you.
Now excuse me -- I have to go and test the RF shielding properties of another brand of kitchen foil....
Well, the jig is up for them now. (Score:3)
Not for much longer now the cat is out of the bag.
Twitch is not a replacement for Justin.tv. Justin.tv not financially viable. Game streaming is, hence twitch.tv
From Twitch Rules: "Non-gaming, non-music content: Video games, board games, card games, fantasy sports, LARP games, and acceptable music content (see above). And while it's nice to take a break and just chill out with your audience, please ensure that your channel's primary focus is on gaming or music creation."
Re:Well, the jig is up for them now. (Score:5, Funny)
Sing your code. Problem solved.
So, "assert(Ieiei == True)"
becomes
"Aaaand IIIIIIIIIIeeeeiiiiiiieeeeiiii wiiiiilllll aaaalways be Ttrrrruuuuuuueeeeeeeee"
Re: Well, the jig is up for them now. (Score:1)
Re:Well, the jig is up for them now. (Score:4, Insightful)
At least it works for gaming. Watching somebody code using a small font size, in a tiny window, down-sampled to 720p and then compressed to hell is about as much fun as... watching someone code. What ever happened to doing?
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I've just sat through 40 minutes of the video you link to. I get it that they are trying it as a PR stunt, but the novelty will very quickly ware off. For example, I don't see who the target audience of these videos are and judging by the low viewing numbers, there isn't much of a target audience and once the novelty very quickly wares off, I can't imagine much of the press caring either. So it'll quickly end up being a lot of extra distracting work for little ga
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I don't think Casey (handmade hero [handmadehero.org]) has anything to do with these guys. He's been streaming for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week since mid/late 2014.
His goal is to teach people how to build a game from scratch in C without an engine or much reliance on libraries. His stream is extremely informative and fun to watch, it feels like pair programming most of the time.
You can also pre-order the game (he's estimating 2 years to completion) which will give you access to the source code nightly to follow along.
An added
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Your question as to why watch instead of do? I ask, why not both? I have a lot of people who come hang out on my stream while they are developing their own projects. Hearing me constantly talking on my stream about my development or helping others fix their bugs keeps them motivated and
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At least it works for gaming. Watching somebody code using a small font size, in a tiny window, down-sampled to 720p and then compressed to hell is about as much fun as... watching someone code. What ever happened to doing?
I think you're looking at it the wrong way. In a commercial environment, you'll have multiple coders within earshot of each other, and they can bounce questions off each other. Don't think of this as entertainment streaming, but just as another form of telepresence.
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I stream all of my indie studio game development live to twitch in front of 100-200 people 8 hours a day, and there are many other game development streams.
If you
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Just incorporate an actual python into your python coding video - problem solved!
LOLWUT (Score:1)
Watching someone else code ranks on my todo list just behind watching paint dry and watching grass grow.
I've watched a few live-coding sessions. The following generizations were true of all of them:
* young male
* likes hearing himself talk
* manually indents his code
* types slower than stephen hawking
* does not know any keyboard shortcuts for the IDE
* does not know the idioms of the language he's using
* can't spot obvious typos becuase he's too busy talking
* the coding task is obviously rehearsed, but it's ei
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
This. Unless you're watching a hands-on demonstration which requires, well, hands to be on something and manipulating it (and, no, entering code isn't a manual skill - when my RSI was bad some days I coded by voice, and it was slower but perfectly possible), you're wasting your time.
What is more, first rule of code: good code takes ages to design and refine. If you're genuinely watching someone write good software, you'll be spending hardly any time watching them at an editor window. Those 24 hour hack-a-th
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However, I actually do develop indie games live on the internet in front of 100-200 people 8 hours a day and they are very entertained. It takes more then being able to code to do this; you must also be very entertaining.
I don't know about how one guy got the internet to watch people code, consi
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"* manually indents his code"
To be fair, I find manually indenting code a lot less frustrating than auto indent because the number of times when I *don't* want auto indent to work but it does anyway and I have to manually undo it just makes it more hassle than its worth.
Agree with you on everything else though.
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Auto isn't obnoxious when it's self triggered. I love using HTMLKit for coding because you can setup custom rules based on the language you're using and just hit a key (your choice of which key) to trigger a pre-defined auto-behaviour. Saves so much time not having to fuss with auto-behaviours you don't intend and not manually entering every slow detail every time. Even places the carat where you want it.
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Auto isn't obnoxious when it's self triggered. I love using HTMLKit for coding because you can setup custom rules based on the language you're using and just hit a key (your choice of which key) to trigger a pre-defined auto-behaviour. Saves so much time not having to fuss with auto-behaviours you don't intend and not manually entering every slow detail every time. Even places the carat where you want it.
In other words, you use macros.
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In other words, you use macros.
Not quite, but similar enough.
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Puh, that is one of the things that don't happen in languages that use braces ... :)
Type the closing brace, and indentstion jumps back.
Or more often you type the opening and the closing one is placed automatically below it
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I was just thinking this also. I'm a programmer. I love my job and I love coding. However, if someone needed to watch me work for "entertainment", they would be really disappointed. Long stretches of me typing at a keyboard. Occasionally, I stop and think about a problem. The most exciting moment would be when I'm so happy about solving a tricky problem that I let out an audible "I know!" and then go back to typing.
Not exactly riveting stuff there.
how did this make it to the frontpage,... (Score:3)
this is news how, come on there has den folks coding in their youtube-channel for ages,...
don't really see whats special or new about this,..
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In that case you might be interested in my Twitch stream, where I manually code the drivers to produce unique 3D printed representations of Bitcoins.
If that hasn't filled your /. Buzzword Bingo card, I'll be starting a Kickstarter campaign shortly to pilot a scheme for delivering the coins to my customers by autonomous drone.
And Timothy will video an interview with me, most probably in a noisy environment that makes it difficult to follow.
HOUSE!
The fun of coding... (Score:4, Insightful)
.... is solving problems yourself and creating a working piece of code at the end along with a sense of achievement and self satisfaction.
The fun of coding is NOT the physical typing in of the code text along with edits, deletions what whatnots. So quite why anyone would want to watch someone *else* do it frankly is beyond me. If you want to learn to code in language XYZ go buy a book or look at some example code online then most importantly try it yourself.
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Nice try at some conflation there but no cigar. Sports and music are meant to be watched as well as played. Watching someone typing into a text editor has never been and never will be a recreational activity. The musical equivalent would be watching the composer write down the notes or for sport watching Roger Federer do practice shots over the net for 3 hours.
"and I can assure you it has several thousand viewers when it's on, so there's your proof that there is an audience for people writing code."
All that
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You can argue that about anything.
You can argue that the "fun" in playing videogames is well... playing videogames. Yet for over a decade now, watching others play videogames is popular (a
Not for me (Score:2)
Can't do that when people watch.
I would have to actually _comment_ the code!
Oh, the horror!
"the Internet" = how many people exactly? (Score:2)
The article is very shy about actually saying how many people contribute to, or watch, these streams.
I guess if you say you "Got the Internet To Watch People Code", it can mean just about any number from 2 to 200 million. But who's counting?
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Seriously ? (Score:2)
I don't even enjoy watching myself code and if I am at home will have the TV running something enjoyable like Law and Order.
Example (Score:3)
This guy was trying a new editor named "vi", but didn't know how to properly exit it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Slowpoke? (Score:2)
The tedium of everyday programming... (Score:2)
..is well-expressed on that site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] - over 2 1/2 hours.
It does provide a good contrast to doing the same thing using the power of a good functional notation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
- Conway's Game Of Life in APL - in less than 8 minutes.
Trying to trick us (Score:2)
All I can think of is three in the morning, empty pizza box and can of red bull beside the keyboard, fourth night in a row, trying to get something done for a launch while everyone else is home sleeping like normal people.
All broadcast live. That'll get people wanting to code for sure.
Casey Muratori - Handmade Hero (Score:2)
Since last November, Casey Muratori has been producing a nightly stream for his indie project, Handmade Hero (http://www.handmadehero.org). It's as much an informal class on low-level C programming as a game coding stream, and he's gotten quite a regular audience for it. It helps that he's also interesting to listen to - he's also on a podcast (The Jeff and Casey Show).
It actually reminds me of being back in the college dorms, coding late into the night with friends, someone tapping at the keyboard and ev
terms of service (Score:1)
"his girlfriend" (Score:1)
so they're doing this together, but apparently she doesn't have a name? ...
okay then