James_Henry (u/James_Henry)

James_Henry commented on One or two spaces after a period? How about three? widespacer.blogspot.com/2... · Posted by u/James_Henry

MBCook · 3 years ago

I’d always heard it was to try to minimize rivers in text. I don’t see that mentioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_(typography)

James_Henry · 3 years ago

Check this out: http://widespacer.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-river-runs-through-...

James_Henry commented on One or two spaces after a period? How about three? widespacer.blogspot.com/2... · Posted by u/James_Henry

MBCook · 3 years ago

I’d always heard it was to try to minimize rivers in text. I don’t see that mentioned.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_(typography)

James_Henry · 3 years ago

They don't mention it here, but I think they might on a different post? Rivers are going to show up more in a monospace font (which your link points out), so that would make sense. With modern fonts it makes sense to be putting the spaces in after a sentence stops for readability though. Microsoft word allows for manipulating spacing anywhere there are still rivers.

James_Henry commented on One or two spaces after a period? How about three? widespacer.blogspot.com/2... · Posted by u/James_Henry

James_Henry · 3 years ago

I've always been annoyed by the way html treats whitespace. Having more space between sentences is so much more readable.

James_Henry commented on Show HN: I automated half of my typing github.com/eschluntz/comp... · Posted by u/eschluntz

James_Henry · 3 years ago

Add a charachorder to this and you'll be typing crazy fast.

James_Henry commented on Show HN: I automated half of my typing github.com/eschluntz/comp... · Posted by u/eschluntz

sosodev · 3 years ago

Is the universal version of this stenotype?

James_Henry · 3 years ago

Doesn't stenotype also have chording though?

James_Henry commented on Show HN: I automated half of my typing github.com/eschluntz/comp... · Posted by u/eschluntz

Sparkyte · 3 years ago

This is good I can imagine all of the embarrassing auto typing. It is the reason I hate Android phones. I will be typing and it will try to predict what I am writing. Some of it not sure what data it is built on came out hilarious or down right inappropriate. Not like swears or vulgar just the punch of the expressions.

James_Henry · 3 years ago

You can turn that feature off on Android phones.

James_Henry commented on Schools bought millions of Chromebooks and 3 years later they’re breaking down theverge.com/2023/4/21/23... · Posted by u/redundantly

shagie · 3 years ago

Also the BBC Micro in the UK.

The key things with these devices was the accessibility and the ability to "get under the covers" and use it.

It wasn't a device to delivery courses, it was a tool - just as much as a hammer in shop class was a tool. Yea, we all played Oregon trail... but I've still got fond memories of Rocky's Boots ( https://archive.org/details/Rockys_Boots_1982_Learning_Compa... ).

Chromebooks and smart phones (I believe) are too far away from the computing of the device.

With the Apple ][+ I recall wanting to make a program that showed maps of the world in low rez graphics... and the corresponding learning more about loops than the librarian understood and using the DATA block along with READ to read it and learning how to compress 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 into 255.

There are a couple things going on though with the expectations. I could write a program that would look amateur but comparable to what was professional at that time using BASIC. The web of old that we fondly look back to with Myspace didn't take masterful skills to get to what was similarly acceptable.

Today, to get something that is vaguely comparable to what you expect when you use a computing device takes a lot of work. Swift Playgrounds and Scratch aren't enough. There is a high discouragement factor and the expectations of what someone who wants to do what I did with BASIC or simple web pages back then is a lot of work.

I would be tempted to say that instead of general computing and scratch we should look at teaching kids Excel... and I might get some flack for that. The main thing is that with Excel you look at what can be done and it's not too far from making a column have the values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. You can get something that is useful without too much work and without expecting it to look as nice as a fancy page or game. And as they learn how to do more, you can introduce them to =LAMBDA.

James_Henry · 3 years ago

The main use of computers in school should be teaching typing, word processing (and it probably should be with Word), number crunching and mathematics, and perhaps a little bit of graphics processing.

I agree that Excel should be taught, but also something like Mathematica (or some other CAS, rather than forcing TI calculators on kids). Python, perhaps through Jupyter Notebooks, would also probably be good too.

James_Henry commented on Schools bought millions of Chromebooks and 3 years later they’re breaking down theverge.com/2023/4/21/23... · Posted by u/redundantly

pier25 · 3 years ago

3 years for a $200 device seems like a pretty good deal. Especially in the hands of kids who are rarely careful with things.

It's obviously terrible for the environment and it's also probably terrible for cognitive development. Pen and paper is a way better solution for kids and teenagers.

James_Henry · 3 years ago

Honestly, for adults too, pen and paper is often a better solution. Word processing and number crunching are the main use cases for a computer and I think kids should learn these things with a computer, but it would be so much better if they had direct instruction in a computer lab rather than giving them all a distracting laptop/chromebook.