[John23832]

>Cheap new laptops are in the sub-$200 range. Most educational content is text or simple videos, both of which can be consumed on a cheap laptop. The cheapest broadband plan from Xfinity in my area is $40/month.

200 bucks a lot for some people, and you have to pass a credit check to get xfinity access.

> That being said, most people participating in the gig economy need access to the Internet to even participate, so most likely already have both a company and internet access.

Cell service != general internet service.

Try bootstrapping yourself into a tech job with only cell phone access. That may work in the third world where the standards are lower, but not in the West.

[cableshaft]

I manage to do quite a bit during lunches with a $200 computer at places that don't have internet access. Sometimes I use my cell phone to look something up, but I can also just wait until later or check a downloaded pdf.

You don't need to have constant internet access to be able to be productive on a computer. In fact, I'd argue that often not having internet can make you more productive, by not giving you any distractions.

Well, if you know your entire domain well, at least. At work I'm constantly fighting frameworks or APIs or reaching edge cases or error messages I've never seen before that I've had to look up, so I'd be a lot less productive without internet.

But I can program for quite some time in Python, vanilla C#, and to a lesser extent Swift without looking anything up. And back in the day I knew Actionscript so well I never needed the internet to be productive (I miss those days).

Really, you need to be able to not have to context switch a whole lot. All-in-one platforms let you stay in one context; most modern web platforms force you to context switch all the damn time.

[John23832]

I assume that you, like myself, would be coming to the table with prior programing/technical experience. Someone very green would probably have to look things up all the time... I know I did. Also, where do you get the Python interpreter, or the C# or Swift compilers without the internet? I assume this $200 computer is windows, which comes with none of those. Maybe start with JS?

I agree with you, if you know your domain, you can probably do it (with headaches). If you don't, it's very hard or functionally impossible.

[cableshaft]

All those things can be downloaded from places with free WiFi. Stop in a McDonald's, Starbucks, or library, and download all the compilers and documentation you think you might need for the day or week or month or whatever. I am assuming you're in a part of the world where free WiFi is available somewhere, or a friend you can ask to get something for you (like I did when I was a kid and didn't have internet).

And even without compilers and interpreters, all you REALLY need is a text editor. Or pen and paper, in order to write code. Granted, it helps to verify the code works with compilers and interpreters, but it's possible to step through it manually yourself to verify its accuracy.

It's not too uncommon for me to write a chunk of code in a simple text editor, and then test and fix it up later.

If you're just getting started, download some technical books (you can find free ones online) or some step-by-step tutorials and work through them.

I actually got started programming in classrooms on my calculator, or in Q-Basic/HTML in the days of modems where I had to get permission to dial in to the internet, and everything went so slow I had to know exactly what I was going to get ahead of time, so I often went a long time before finding help online (which was pretty hard to find back then anyway).

I still managed to learn quite a bit. It's definitely possible. Not necessarily a perfect environment for coding, and definitely not ideal for a company that pressures you to perform at peak efficiency, but definitely possible.