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This is the second blog post in a 3-part series where I explain how my team and I created GPT Pilot – the AI coding agent that’s designed to work at scale and build production-ready apps with a developer’s help. of this series, I discussed the high-level overview of GPT Pilot. The idea is that AI can now do 95% of all coding that we, developers, are doing. See in 2 hours, which would usually take 20-30 developer hours. However, an app is of no use if it doesn’t fully work or solve the user’s problem. So, until real AGI arrives, you need a developer. In part #1 how I used ChatGPT to code out an entire Redis proxy So, this is how GPT Pilot came to life. It is designed to do 95% of the required coding and asks developers for reviews, such as when it becomes stuck and cannot move forward or needs something outside the app, like an API key. In this post, I walk you through the entire process GPT Pilot goes through when coding an app. I share diagrams to provide a visual representation of everything that’s going on behind the scenes in GPT Pilot. I’m a visual person, so I always create diagrams. To understand how GPT Pilot’s coding works, there are three concepts – context rewinding, recursive conversations, and TDD. See my introduction, which I described in them in part #1 of this series. The GPT Pilot coding workflow contains 5 steps: Take the next development task in line Break down the task into development steps Take the next development step Fetching of currently implemented code Write code for the current step Run the code or a command Test the new code changes Debug the development step or go to the next step Coding workflow is my favorite part of GPT Pilot, so let’s dive in. Here is a diagram of how it looks visually: #1 Task breakdown Two important concepts will be mentioned throughout this blog post – and . development tasks development steps GPT Pilot works in a way that, after breaking down the specifications for developing an app, it creates development tasks that will lead to a fully working app. are basically high-level descriptions of what needs to be done that a developer will take and start implementing. Think of them as tasks in Jira (btw, I hate Jira…not sure if anyone relates, but I just wanted to let it out of my system). Here is an example of a development task: Development tasks In the diagram above, you see 3 task properties: : what needs to be implemented to fulfill this task description : how can the lead developer determine if the current task is finished – a crucial pillar of GPT Pilot is a developer must be involved throughout the coding process so that you can ensure the development process is going as planned and understand the codebase along the way user_review_goal : the kind of automated test GPT Pilot should write to test if this entire development task works as expected. After a development , GPT Pilot writes unit tests, and after a development , it writes integration or E2E tests. programmatic_goal step task Now, when you start developing a task from Jira ( ), you will split it into smaller chunks (we call them ) that are actionable items you would set out to implement into the codebase. Each development step can be one of the following: development task development steps – a command that needs to be run on the machine, such as a command to install a dependency, start the app to check if the previously implemented steps work, or create a folder. Command run – the most important development step that explains what exactly needs to be implemented in the actual code to fulfill the current step. It can contain new code that needs to be written or code that needs to be changed. The way it works is the code change is a detailed, human-readable description of what needs to be implemented. It contains both the code that needs to be implemented and the description of what it is being used for. This is very similar to when you ask to code something. It will give you the code as well as the explanations of why it wrote that code. Code change ChatGPT The reason for this is that code implementation is not so simple. Sometimes, we need to add a snippet to existing code or change the existing implementation. That is why we separated the outline of the coding change (this development task) and the actual implementation of this change that the CodeMonkey agent is dedicated to. I will go deeper into that in the #3 Coding section. Here is an example of a code change: – a development step that AI cannot do by itself and needs human help in fulfilling the step. Then, GPT Pilot asks the developer to do something, and when he/she is done, they write “continue,” and GPT Pilot will continue with the implementation. Here are some reasons why human intervention might be needed: Human intervention There is a needed API key (e.g., Twitter API key to fetch data from Twitter) GPT Pilot became stuck in a debugging process, and it either filled the entire context length or the recursion conversation was too deep and became unproductive to continue down the recursion depth. GPT Pilot needs a verification if something works as expected – e.g., GPT Pilot is not sure if Mongo is installed properly on the machine and might ask the developer to run some sudo commands and see if it works as expected. #2 Fetching of currently implemented code It’s easy for AI to write a new file that contains code, but in reality, that is rarely the case. For the most part, we write into the existing files and either change the existing code or add new code. Now, AI can do this easily if you give it all of the existing code and instructions for what needs to be implemented. The problem arises when an app scales and the codebase becomes so large that it cannot fit into the LLM context. And this is actually a very common case – at least until we have LLMs with 1M tokens, which doesn’t seem to be coming soon. When you work on a task in a big codebase, you usually look at a smaller part of the codebase (maybe 1,000 lines) and work only with that subset of code to implement the task. So, to address this issue and make GPT Pilot truly scalable so that it can create and upgrade large production-ready codebases, we must create a way for the AI to select the smaller part of the codebase (e.g., those 1,000 lines) on which it will implement the current task. Once it’s finished, we can simply add the finished lines back into the original codebase. Let me start explaining this by telling you what happens when GPT Pilot writes code and creates new files and folders. For each file and folder it must create, it needs to write a description of what the idea is behind the file or folder it wants to create. For example, it might want to create a folder utils for which it will write: Contains utility modules that provide generic, reusable solutions to common problems encountered throughout the application.
These utilities are not specific to the app's core domain but offer auxiliary functionality to support and streamline the primary codebase.
They encapsulate best practices, reduce code repetition, and make the overall code cleaner and easier to maintain. Examples include functions for data formatting, error handling, debugging tools, string manipulation, data validation, and other shared operations that don't fit within specific modules or components of the app. Now, for each function, GPT Pilot creates, it writes a description of what the function is supposed to do – that is a pseudocode for the entire codebase. Now that you know what happens when GPT Pilot writes code, you can understand how it fetches the relevant code for each development step. Before GPT Pilot codes each step, it first fetches the relevant part of the codebase in a completely separate LLM conversation. That conversation is set up in 3 steps. AI is given the development step description along with the entire project file/folder structure and descriptions for each file and folder. From this, LLM tells us which files are relevant for the mentioned step. After narrowing down the necessary files, we give the LLM pseudocode for each file it listed and ask it to tell us which functions are relevant for the current development step. Once we know the pseudocode it selected, we can fetch the actual code and put it into the original conversation, where the LLM will write the description of what needs to be implemented. If the app becomes extremely huge, we can improve this by first giving the LLM the folders, from which it will select folders, and then we give it relevant files. Before each of these steps, we can also rewind the conversation to the beginning to leave more room in the context. Here is a diagram of what this looks like: #3 Coding Now that we can that contains all the code necessary for someone to implement a specific task, we can start with the actual coding process. This happens in a 2-part process: create an LLM message First, the LLM writes the description of what needs to be implemented along with the code. If the entire file needs to be coded, LLM’s response will contain all the code, but if only a part of the code inside a file needs to be changed, LLM will tell us things, like after the Mongo setup, add the following lines of code… As you can imagine, by this being stochastic rather than deterministic, we need to ensure that the written code is inserted into appropriate places or changed correctly. Here is where the agent steps in. It is called code monkey because it doesn’t make any decisions but rather simply implements the code that the Developer agent writes. It is given the code relevant for the current task (that is previously selected by LLM in the code-fetching phase) and the description that the Developer agent created in development step #1. Then, the only thing it needs to return is the completely coded sections/files that we can just insert/replace in the codebase. CodeMonkey #4 Testing There are two places where testing is done – (1) after each development task when GPT Pilot creates integration tests that test if the high-level features work as intended and (2) after each development step when it creates smaller unit tests that ensure all functions work as expected. GPT Pilot has three different types of tests it can do: are the preferred way of testing a step or task because they will be used in a regression test suite so that GPT Pilot can be sure that new code changes don’t break old features. However, automated tests are not always the most optimal way to test new code. Automated tests is a test where we run a specific command and give the output to the LLM, which then tells us if the implementation was successful. For example, we don’t need to create an automated test that will check if we can run an app with npm run start – for that, a simple command run is enough to check if we successfully set up our environment. Command run is the final way to test the app, and it is needed whenever AI cannot test the implementation itself. This is needed, for example, when there are some visual aspects (e.g., CSS animations) that must be checked to see if they work correctly. Human intervention After running each test, if successful, GPT Pilot takes on the next task or step and continues with coding, but when the test fails, GPT Pilot needs to debug the error. #5 Debugging The debugging process needs to be robust so that it can be started on any bug that arises, regardless of the error. It also needs to be able to debug any issue that happens during the debugging process. This is where recursive conversations come in, which are conversations with the LLM that are set up in a way that they can be used “recursively.” Let’s look at the example in the image below. It represents a flow that the GPT Pilot goes through when working on a development task that has five development steps. In this example, during the development of step #3, an error occurs – let’s say it implements a specific code change, but after running a test, it fails. Then, it goes into the recursion level #1 to debug this issue. It breaks down what needs to be done to fix this issue into two steps, but during the implementation of the first step, another error happens. For example, a needed dependency for fixing error #1 doesn’t exist. GPT Pilot then goes into the recursion level #2, which it breaks down into three steps. In the third step, another error occurs. Then, it goes to the third recursion level, which has only 1 step. Once that step is successfully executed, GPT Pilot goes back to the recursion level #2 and finishes debugging error #2. After that, it goes back to debugging error #1, and finally, after error #1 is fixed, it goes back to development step #3, after which it continues the app implementation. When the recursions go five levels deep, GPT Pilot will stop the debugging process and ask the developer to fix the initial issue it started with. Once the developer resolves this issue, they write the results to GPT Pilot. Then, it can continue the development process as if it debugged the issue itself. Conclusion In the first post of this series, I discussed the high-level overview of how GPT Pilot works. In this post, I described the GPT Pilot Coding Workflow, including: How Developer and CodeMonkey agents work together to implement code (write new files or update existing ones), How recursive conversations and context rewinding work in practice and Rewinding the app development process and restoring it from any development step. In the final post, I will dive deep into how all the agents are structured. We built the agents modularly because we know they will evolve over time. Please head over to GitHub, clone the , experiment with it, and send me your feedback. I want GPT Pilot to be as helpful to developers as possible, so let me know what you think, how it can be improved, or what works well. Add comments at the bottom of this post, or email me at . GPT Pilot repository zvonimir@pythagora.ai 🌟🌟🌟 Finally, we're trying to raise funds to continue developing GPT Pilot, so . Thank you 🙏 🌟🌟🌟 it would mean A LOT if you could and/or share it with your friends star GPT Pilot Github repository Also published . here

How GPT Pilot Codes 95% of Your App [Part 2]

One of the hottest topics among many parents and teachers is coding for kids and methods of making them interested in coding and computer science. If you’re a parent, you’re probably wondering how your child can benefit from learning the language of the future. In this quick write-up, I'll explain the benefits of learning to code at a young age, along with some tips on how to get your child started. First, let's quickly define what coding is. (or programming) is the act of making computer programs. Coding A computer program is a for a computer to do a job. A computer job can be drawing a circle on the screen or landing astronauts on the moon. sequence of instructions There are plenty of programming languages in the market. Some are great for creating mobile apps and websites. Some work better with AI, and some are used in robotics. If you know how to code today, you can get into almost any industry as a coder; Engineering, medical, and aerospace are just a few examples. Benefits of Coding for Kids Children are curious beings; From a young age, they are easily entertained by tackling obstacles and solving puzzles. While keeping them entertained, coding teaches them various thinking styles, such as critical and creative thinking. helps children to agree (or disagree) with others based on facts and logic rather than emotions. Critical thinking means thinking outside the box; It gives them the courage to try unconventional solutions to new problems. Creative thinking In addition to thinking skills, children such as creativity, problem-solving, and persistence too. learn soft skills Based on a 2013 study on by kindergarten children in a coding environment, children will have opportunities to develop "mathematical concepts, problem-solving, and social skills." problem-solving When Should Kids Start Learning to Code? Anyone can , from 5-year-old kids to 60-year-old folks. However, there are many advantages to learning it at a young age. learn to code According to 2021 survey, around 68% of software developers learned to code before they turned 17! StackOverflow’s How To Get Them Interested Kids can learn the basics of coding with simplified programming languages or activities that don’t require screens. They don’t have to start with a language, though. Block-based coding tools provide a beginner-friendly environment for young programmers. text-based programming In block-based coding, the programmer drags and drops blocks onto a canvas to create programs. Each block represents a language feature, like a function (move, stop, walk), a "loop,” or an "if" block. A block-based language enables children to focus on l concepts and see instant results - without being distracted by syntax mistakes commonly made by beginners. earning programming One of the most popular and intuitive block-based programming languages is , a great educational tool for programming developed at MIT. Scratch Other options include Code.org, CodeCombat, and CodeMonkey. How About Unplugged Activities? If you're worried about your child spending too much time on screens, you can try . unplugged activities You can find many coding games you can play with just paper and pens. It could be a perfect way to make yourself spend more quality time with your children. Alright, I hope you found this quick guide helpful! Thanks for reading. Also published . here

How To Get Your Kids Coding: A Quick Guide for Moms & Dads

How many times have you thought about that can also be useful for you? Learning to code entails not just becoming comfortable with or familiar with the syntax, but also understanding the reasoning and improving logical and analytical abilities. Each programming language has benefits and disadvantages; however, the fundamentals are similar to some extent. games you can play on VR As you know, creating code in a programming language is the best way to learn it. It is also well recognized that the essential developers not only create code but also like doing so. Advanced programming can be tedious if the fundamentals are not addressed. And even if you're a professional programmer, the industry is hard and competitive, requiring you to continue learning and extending your expertise. There are several free coding games available to help you develop your coding knowledge and push your programming abilities to the next level. 1. CodeMonkey CodeMonkey is the first coding game on the list. CodeMonkey is a beginner-friendly online coding game platform that teaches programming fundamentals to individuals with little or no coding experience in an engaging and fun way. It teaches you how to create your HTML5 games using the CoffeeScript programming language. CodeMonkey is an excellent game for honing your reasoning and problem-solving abilities while learning how to write code. 2. CodinGame If you would like to enhance your coding abilities while also learning new ideas but are wary of the standard tutorials and need something entertaining and engaging, you should certainly try CodinGame. It is a site that offers engaging and free games for assisting students to learn over 25 major programming languages such as Ruby, JavaScript, Java, C#, Rust, and PHP. The problems have a rising difficulty level, allowing creators to advance their programming abilities. Among the most exciting aspects of the CodinGame service is the ability to play with colleagues and friends, as well as compete in worldwide coding competitions including timed AI or code-golf tasks. Headhunters also utilize the system to contact great players and make employment offers. Overall, it is an excellent coding game service for honing your abilities and eventually becoming a coding expert. 3. CodeCombat CodeCombat is a popular JavaScript-related coding game. Developers created specifically for instructors and students to use as an instructional video game that explains software programming ideas and languages, and also computer science foundations. It is made up of puzzles and tasks that players must solve by creating JavaScript code. Also, CoffeeScript, Python, and the Lua game programming language are all worth learning. The game has a middle ages dungeon theme, and that you should maneuver your Hero through into the game to use some simple instructions that are explained in the tutorial that is included with the game. For novices, CodeCombat is a fun and engaging approach to learn JavaScript syntax and logic. 4. CheckIO Do you want to improve your Python or JavaScript abilities in a fun and interactive environment? Then you should certainly give CheckIO a shot. It is a free programming game for both beginner and expert programmers that allows you to develop your coding abilities by completing interesting challenges and enjoyable tasks in JavaScript and Python. It has an island design, and the rest of the game seems made up of several island-based stages, each one more challenging than the last to guarantee that you learn new things at each stage of the game. 5. Flexbox Defense In this Tower Defense game which you should defend yourself by utilizing Flexbox-based instructions. You will use real-world CSS Flexbox code to move your turrets to fire incoming attackers before they overtake you. Fun fact: Channing Allen, the brother of Indy Hacker creator Courtland Allen, designed this game. The two brothers both are skilled programmers with a strong desire to educate.
It can be a good guide for you to iOS game development. 6. Ruby Warrior Ruby Warrior comes in last on the list of programming games. It is a popular language that is extensively utilized in website designing. If you're new to Ruby, Ruby Warrior is an ideal programming game for you. Bloc developed this game, a part-time online coding training program that gives individuals opportunities for learning coding through projects such as this one. You may pick between beginner and intermediate courses in the game based on your ability level. It is indeed a basic warrior-themed game where players can guide their warriors from a level to the next by issuing instructions in Ruby. 7. Code Wars Game Code Wars is indeed an online gaming platform based also on the ninja concept that helps you improve your abilities via numerous puzzles and coding challenges. If you wish to study a certain language, you must first pass a simple test to demonstrate your language abilities and knowledge. Once you've completed the first levels, you won't find better games on the market for developing advanced programming abilities than this one. Code Wars game offers a wide range of languages, such as Swift, JavaScript, and coding python games, Haskell, and Ruby. It is one of the greatest online game training programs since it teaches you while you play a game. 8. Robocode Mathew Nelson founded Robocode, an open-source educational game. Currently, payments are being provided by many persons; officially Flemming N. Larsen provides services for Robocode to keep it running and to fix issues. The game was created to help people learn to code in Java and enjoy the process. Robocode is a coding game in which the aim is to create a robotic war tank to battle against different other .NET or Java containers. The robot combat takes place both on-screen and in real-time. Robocode's tagline is "Create the Best, Destroy the Rest!" A fun and attractive programming game that shows you the fundamentals of coding. Final Thought For sure, there are several tools available to help you learn to write code, and you may even become experienced using these sources. But coding is similar to painting, so the more you like the process of learning, the more probable this is that you will acquire a passion for coding. Just with a computer and web browser, you can start to learn how to write code.

8 Free Online Games to Help You Learn Coding

The biggest question you should ask yourself before read further is "What is coding?". So coding is the process of assigning a code to something for classification or identification. Basically there are 3 levels of coding: Beginner Intermediate Expert So, let's start the journey with some gaming and believe me you will learn a lot through these games. Yes, Definitely coding. CodeMonkey CodeMonkey is a fun and educational game-based environment where kids learn to code without any prior experience. After completing CodeMonkey's award-winning coding courses, kids will be able to navigate through the programming world with a sense of confidence and accomplishment. CODEWARS Codewars is an educational community for . On the platform, software developers train on programming challenges known as . These discrete programming exercises train a range of skills in a variety of programming languages, and are completed within an online . computer programming kata integrated development environment On Codewars the community and challenge progression is , with users earning ranks and honor for completing kata, contributing kata, and quality solutions. gamified So, as you have played some games , now you can jump on some  Coding websites. BEGINNER 1.GEEKSFORGEEKS GeeksforGeeks was created with a goal in mind to provide well written, well thought and well-explained solutions for selected questions. The core team of five super geeks constituting of technology lovers and computer science enthusiasts have been constantly working in this direction. 2.HackerRank HackerRank is a place where programmers from all over the world come together to solve problems in a wide range of Computer Science domains such as algorithms, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, as well as to practice different programming paradigms like functional programming. INTERMEDIATE 1. HACKEREARTH HackerEarth provides enterprise software that helps organisations with their technical hiring needs. HackerEarth is used by organizations for technical skill assessment and remote video interviewing. In addition to that HackerEarth also has a community and since inception built a base of 4M+ developers. In the community, HackerEarth is known for having conducted 1000+ and 10,000+ to date. hackathons programming challenges HackerEarth has raised $11.5 million in funding over three rounds[3]. Today, more than 750 customers worldwide use its technical coding assessments platform, including Amazon, Walmart Labs, Thoughtworks, Societe Generale, HP, VMware, DBS, HCL, GE, Wipro, Barclays, Pitney Bowes, Intel, and L&T Infotech.HackerEarth is backed by GSF Global and Angelprime. [6] 2.LEETCODE It’s a website where people–mostly software engineers–practice their coding skills. There are 800+ questions (and growing), each with multiple solutions. Questions are ranked by level of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard. Similar websites include HackerRank, Topcoder, InterviewBit, among others. There’s also a popular book, “Cracking the Coding Interview,” which some call the Bible for engineers. The Blind community uses a mix of these resources, but based on mentions, LeetCode seems to be the most popular. Our active users cite the following reasons for preferring LeetCode: more questions, better quality, plus a strong user base. EXPERT 1.CODEFORCES Codeforces is a website that hosts contests. It is maintained by a group of competitive programmers from led by Mikhail Mirzayanov. Since 2013, Codeforces claims to surpass Topcoder in terms of active contestants. As of 2018, it has over 600,000 registered users. Codeforces along with other similar websites are used by top sport programmers like Gennady Korotkevich, Petr Mitrichev, Benjamin Qi and Makoto Soejima, and by other programmers interested in furthering their careers. competitive programming ITMO University 2.CODECHEF CodeChef is a competitive programming community of programmers from across the globe. CodeChef was started as an educational initiative in the year 2009 by Directi, an Indian software company. Apart from its monthly coding contests for the community, CodeChef has many initiatives for Schools, Colleges and Women in competitive programming. CodeChef is credited with hosting the India regionals of the prestigious ICPC for college students, as well as for IOI for school students in India. In 2020, CodeChef’s custodianship was changed from Directi (founded by Bhavin Turakhia) to (Gaurav Munjal, CEO). CodeChef and its various initiatives have been managed and run by its Business Unit Head Anup Kalbalia. Unacademy CONCLUSION That's all for today. The coding levels are divided by me on my personal opinion. I have personally visited and tried problems on all these sites. Coding is like an art. It requires patience and hard work. Going step-by-step is the best method. ALL THE BEST AND KEEP CODING!

Coding Games and Websites to Help You Learn Programming

I’ve dealt with a lot of companies over the course of my career and I’ve noticed something unique about the successful ones. There’s a strong correlation between being a successful and several various traits like quick product development and attracting top talent. There’s several key elements of these companies’ cultures that just make them stand out. One of the biggest common denominators that I’ve witnessed is how the company treats its employees’ time, and more specifically for this post, its programmers’ time. tech company Ask anyone who’s working in a software company what’s the company’s most valuable resource, and if they know what they’re talking about they should always say the same — our developers’ time. I’ve yet to meet any manager to tell me that her programmers are just way too fast, flying through the backlog and sit around most of the day twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do. So we’re all in agreement here right? I mean, if Jeff Atwood almost 10 years ago, then it must be an industry standard by now. From now on, we should make sure that our developers time is utilized intelligently and anything that the company can do to make their lives a little easier, well frankly it should. Some companies take that to an extreme, take Google as an example. Onsite gym? Maid and laundry services? Meals taken care of? Yep, all those so that every single minute of every developer’s time while working is 100% utilized towards actual work. wrote a whole post on it This doesn’t necessarily mean that your company needs to do exactly the same as Google. I mean, taking care of your devs’ laundry is nice, but isn’t really necessary, especially if you’re running a startup. Sure, sticking to your budget is important, so it’s clearly valuable to identify areas which are low hanging fruit — cheap and beneficial. One particular area which can greatly aid developer time utilization, but which is often ignored, is surprisingly a very simple one — equipment. Putting great hardware at your devs’ fingertips is super important, and the company starts reaping the benefits right away. Imagine a simple scenario — Sarah is a developer who starts working at your company. Her natural inclination is towards Linux, she just loves that OS. She has plenty of ready made scripts and aliases, and she knows how to get the work done well quickly and efficiently, provided that she’s allowed to use Linux and to customize it. But the company doesn’t have any developers that work with Linux, so that would require a bit of effort from both IT and finance departments. So, instead of a powerful Linux development machine, she gets a generic PC with Windows installed on it. Let’s assume simple numbers here, and say that Sarah is 5% more efficient if she’s given her OS and hardware of choice. This means that in a regular 20 work day month, Sarah would be able to actually provide 21 work days. Annually this comes out to 12 additional work days, a little over two weeks (assuming 5 work days a week). Now, show me the product manager who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to add an additional two week sprint a year (+ 2 days!) for the lowly price of a laptop with Linux on it. Of course we’re talking conservatively here, some developers after honing their skills for years with a given setup can be up to 20% more effective. Does it truly make sense to hire a $90K a year developer only to turn around and hand them a $700 machine to work on? If your company is planning on spending $180K on that developer in the next two years, it makes perfect sense to get her a beast of a machine for $5K. This represents a measly 2.77% addition on top of her pay. Trust me on this one when I say the productivity boost is well above 2.77%. This is why it still baffles me that there are companies out there which will force developers to work with a particular OS, a given set of tools and sometimes even low grade hardware. All that time spent sifting through CVs, interviewing and painstakingly going through references only to shoot your developer in the foot by forcing her to work on a crappy desktop computer solely because “that’s what IT said you should use”. I’m intentionally leaving out how the developer actually feels about all this and just looking at the cold hard numbers. It’s natural to assume that this type of situation would make most professional developers uncomfortable, but that’s beside the point (for now anyway). So how does this keep happening? I’ve mostly witnessed this phenomenon in places where the company’s culture isn’t a technical one. It’s mostly true for places that aren’t the Valley or real tech hubs, but it’s still infuriating nonetheless. I assume that most of the time, management tries to save costs, I mean after all, developers are so expensive that sometimes other places need to have their spending cut. This is the root of the problem though, if developers are so expensive, you truly need to maximize their output. Do yourself a favor, forget the laundry service, get your developers monstrous machines and for Pete’s sake let them configure them on their own. It’s truly one of the best investments any software company out there can make. This was originally posted on codemonkeyz.com

Programmer’s time — part 1

This post isn’t about why you should teach your kids to code (there’s plenty of those out there), it’s about the how. I’ve detailed several tools below which should be useful for children of all ages to learn concepts and languages. programming I only really started programming at university, which is a shame because I could have gotten a massive head start on peers if I had dived in a bit earlier. I know software isn’t for everyone but I believe more people should get involved in the field, at least to have a better understanding of the technology that’s becoming an ever increasing part of our lives, and what better way to do this than by sparking an interest with your kids when they‘re young. engineering I decided to research what options are available for teaching kids how to code, or at least how to get them interested in that way of thinking (i.e. the logical and problem solving mindset). There are a ton of resources out there, far more than I will mention here, but the ones I’ve listed below should cover a wide range of ages and levels of understanding. I’ve listed my personal recommendations at the bottom of the page, for those of you who want to skip the others. Scratch The visual language and interface was created at MIT Media Labs to get kids coding early, even if they can’t yet understand the complicated syntax that makes up written computer languages. “One of the best ways to take the first leap into programming. Developed by the MIT Media Lab, Scratch is a visual programming language. It allows kids to build interactive stories, animations, games and music. This visual approach to programming is the perfect way to teach kids the fundamental concepts behind programming and software development.” Platform: . Age Group: . Web 8–17 _Scratch is a free programming language and online community where you can create your own interactive stories, games…_scratch.mit.edu Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share App Inventor App Inventor is a cloud-based tool for building Android apps right in your browser. The website provides tutorials and support for students to create (and possibly release) their very own android apps! Platform: (and optionally your Android phone). Age Group . Web 12+ _Interest in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications is exploding. Last month's Pokemon Go craze…_appinventor.mit.edu MIT App Inventor | Explore MIT App Inventor CodeMonster Interactive tutorial into the basics of programming using JavaScript that focuses on action. Code changes immediately yield visible results. Code Monster is a gentle and fun introduction to programming concepts. It’s quite enjoyable and gets kids actually manipulating code right away, although it lacks some of the dazzle that some other graphical solutions may offer and the visuals are a little outdated. Platform: . Age group: . Web 9–14 _Code Monster gets kids excited about programming. It is a combination of a game and tutorial where kids experiment with…_www.crunchzilla.com Code Monster from Crunchzilla Swift Playgrounds A brand new app from Apple. Learning to code with Swift Playgrounds is incredibly engaging. The app comes with a complete set of Apple-designed lessons. Play your way through the basics in “Fundamentals of Swift” using real code to guide a character through a 3D world. Then move on to more advanced concepts. Thanks to for the suggestion. Matthew Fitch Platform: . Age group: . iPad 8+ _Swift Playgrounds is a new app for iPad that teaches you to write Swift code in a fun, interactive way. Learn the code…_www.apple.com Swift Playgrounds Hopscotch A bit similar to Scratch although it’s more basic. Specifically designed for the iPad, Hopscotch is simple enough for most kids to get into it quickly but allows for them to set up all kinds of events and actions from a simple play button to more advanced things like tilting/shaking the iPad and drawing/colliding characters. Platform: . Age group: . iPad 8+ _For curious people of all ages. Make your own games, art, and more. Tons of in-app tutorials and even lesson plans to…_gethopscotch.com Hopscotch - Learn to Code Through Creative Play Daisy the Dinosaur Same idea as hopscotch, except this game targets the youngest coders. I didn’t get a chance to use it but from what I’ve seen it’s extremely basic and it’s probably a good introduction to coding for 4–8 year old children. It allows kids to create basic events like “on dinosaur touched, move dinosaur”. Platform: . Age group: . iPad 4–8 https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278 CodeCademy Created as a fun and simple way to get people of all ages to begin coding. Uses a social element of earning badges for completing bits of code and progressing through tutorials which can be shared to friends. It’s very interactive and shows immediate feedback/outputs of your code. Aimed at higher level students who want to actually learn how to program using real code, and not a pseudo programming language. It lacks the game-y aspect that many of the other child targeted solutions offer, but it’s still really easy to grasp and allows kids as young as 12 to learn the basics of many languages including Ruby, JavaScript, PHP and Python. They also have an After School Programming effort to try and encourage students/teachers to start programming clubs at their schools. Platform: . Age group: Web, iOS 12+. _Learn to code interactively, for free._www.codecademy.com Learn to code Alice Alice is a 3D programming environment that allows kids create animations, interactive games, or videos. The application introduces and will help kids understand key principles such as object orientated programming. Programs are created by drag and dropping graphic tiles. Each instruction corresponds to standard statements in a programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. This tool looks a little outdated (but the core concepts aren’t) and support is still provided. Platform: . Age group: . Desktop 12+ http://www.alice.org/ RaspberryPi and Education Manual Designed as a cheap, accessible, programmable computer for kids, the Raspberry Pi is an excellent starting place for children of all ages to learn how to code, and it makes it even more enjoyable when it’s their every own computer! The Raspberry Pi website also offers an educational manual as a free download, which guides students on how to set it up. It also contains tutorials for the aforementioned and popular Scratch programming language. Older/more experienced kids may also wish to avail of the python tutorials the manual provides. Platform: (of course). Age group: . RaspberryPi 8+ _The Raspberry Pi is a tiny and affordable computer that you can use to learn programming through fun, practical…_www.raspberrypi.org Raspberry Pi - Teach, Learn, and Make with Raspberry Pi Code.org — Hour of Code This is one of the better places to start if your child has never programmed before. The age range on the site says 6–106 because they believe that anyone can and should go to and learn the basics of coding for one hour. code.org Engineers from Google, Microsoft, Facebook at Twitter helped create the one hour tutorial and it has been endorsed by many celebrities (which will likely encourage kids to give it a go even more). It also uses graphics from the immensely popular Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies, which certainly can’t hurt. After completing one hour of coding the site offers recommendations on where to go next to continue learning. Platform: . Age group: . Web 6+ _The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that…_hourofcode.com Every child deserves opportunity LightBot LightBot is a programming puzzle game in which you have to move a robot to the end of each level using high level programming concepts like loops and procedures. Gameplay involves dragging and dropping simple instructions to form a procedure for the robot to carry out to complete each level. Platform: , . Age group: (for junior coding puzzles) and . iOS Android, Windows, Mac, Kindle 4–8 9+ http://www.light-bot.com Some others that I was quite impressed by but didn’t get a chance to properly look at: , and . Stencyl Tynker Hackety Hack My Personal Recommendations Okay, I know I’ve mentioned quite a few above so here are my top three recommendations, in no particular order: Scratch — http://scratch.mit.edu/ CodeCademy — http://www.codecademy.com/ Hour of Code — https://hourofcode.com/ Thanks for reading, I hope you found some of this useful.

Teach Your Kids to Code

How many of us have Reward points that are sleeping in our accounts? How challenging it is to track them? How does it affect brands? And a lot more questions keep arising, when Reward Points become the subject to be discussed. And the comforting factor is that we are not alone, Globally 48 trillion reward points are lying idle in members accounts due to the above mentioned problem. Reward points represent the stake that a brand wishes to share with their customers who add value to them. So, when they go unredeemed, it eventually turns out to be a liability in their books. According to (the go to source for Global Loyalty Insights), below are a few consumer facts that are leading to this massive accumulation of unredeemed Reward points. COLLOQUY Reasons are: of the surveyed consumers did not know their point balance 57% among them were unaware of the exact value of their points 38% of consumers in a Reward program feel that it takes too long to earn a point or a mile 57% of the consumers weren’t interested in the type of Rewards offered 53% Employing Blockchain to Mobilize the $360 Bn worth Unredeemed Reward Points Having understood the problem, Codemojo has come up with a solution that will foster frictionless redemption and rewarding experience through a blockchain-based platform called Global Rewards Network. This platform will be an upgraded version of our existing Rewards Network that is currently engaging 6 million digital users every month across 2000+ publishers (Apps and Websites) using 100+ Premium Brand Rewards. , PayPal and backed technology startup, has proven records of serving millions of users through , that has been in . Now, we aim at bringing borderless rewarding ecosystem by replacing our existing wallet-based architecture with decentralized Blockchain ledger, backed by our own cryptocurrency called . Codemojo CIO Angel Investors Network A.I. powered Reward Network operation since 2015 ALLOY What is Global Rewards Network and ALLOY ? is a single platform that connects Consumers, Brands and Publishers enabling users of partnered brands and publishers to link, combine and convert all their through an app interface. The collated reward points can be redeemed against list of products and services across the extensive Global Rewards Catalog. Global Rewards Network reward points to a local fiat equivalent Caption: ALLOY token will be the anchor currency working in the backend to facilitate the cross border transactions across parties. ALLOY How does it work? Caption: How does it work? A user with Reward points from various Reward Programs, now will be able to redeem his points anywhere in the world across any Local Brand using ALLOY app. All that he needs to do is to simply ALLOY app → → all his Reward Programs. On linking, the consumer will be able to view his collated Reward points as a single value in their local currency, which in turn can be redeemed across partnered brands in the Global Rewards Network. Download Sign up Link The ecosystem will be built on top of and the will use to facilitate click & configure partnerships between brands, which in the traditional way would have required a lot of handshakes & paperwork. Ethereum Global Rewards Network smart contracts Should a Consumer know about Blockchain? The answer is so evident that it is a , because, for consumers, this will be an easy to use mobile app/website which doesn’t require any knowledge on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain and they will be seeing their total worth of their in fiat equivalent of the country they are accessing from. big NO collected rewards points Caption: Real World Merchandise for your Virtual Currencies using ALLOY “With , our aim is to bridge the . ALLOY will be a single secure & easy-to-use platform that provides a hassle-free environment for consumers to Collate, Combine and Redeem the scattered reward points of various reward programs against an extensive catalog of products and services of their choice. For brands and publishers, this will serve as an interface to engage and reward their audience, enabling frictionless redemption”, says the . ALLOY $360bn gap between Virtual Currencies and Real World Merchandise & Services Shoaib CTO of Codemojo How much does Codemojo plans to raise in ICO? Codemojo plans to raise upto from the and somewhere close to . Based on the current market price of Ethereum, . According to our Roadmap, the Alpha version of ALLOY app will be ready to be rolled out during the first quarter of 2018. By second quarter of 2018, Codemojo plans to expand ALLOY across Japan, Korea, Brazil and other countries and development. 86,956 ETH i.e. $25 mn main ICO $3 mn in Pre ICO one ETH equals 575 ALLOYS What are the Benefits? Consumers will earn of the checkout value as during checkout in the Rewards Network. 0.5% ALLOY Cashback For Token Holders Upto additional cashback and discounts. 2% to the new Rewards Network. Early access Prestige Membership. “priority pass” to use the new ALLOY token for . Early access redemption When is the ICO Scheduled? starts on and ends by Nov 5th, while our is scheduled on . Pre ICO October 15th main ICO 25th of November By harnessing the blockchain technology, Codemojo is now set to disrupt the colossal customer engagement and rewards market by mobilizing the $360 worth of unredeemed Reward Points. Also, has been by a team of ICO experts in . Do you want to know more about this project? Join our group, Visit our and Check out our ALLOY rated 4.6/5 ICO Bench Telegram website whitepaper .

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