Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mwcampbell 1483 days ago
I see where the GP is coming from. The old system installations of Perl, Python, and Ruby could be thought of as the 2000s equivalent of the ROM BASIC on early microcomputers -- an easy way for anyone with access to such a computer, even a child, to start dabbling with programming. But I suppose today's equivalent is the browser dev tools, or maybe Swift Playgrounds on current Apple computers.
1 comments
jdminhbg 1483 days ago
The difference is that the barrier to entry is so much lower now. If I were trying to help someone just starting out, I would point them at something like repl.it instead of whatever is preinstalled on their machine.

The system Python and Ruby installs on macOS at this point are more of a hindrance to newbies than a help. You have to explain the differences between versions and hope they don't have to deal with any conflicts.

link
andrekandre 1483 days ago 

  > The system Python and Ruby installs on macOS at this point are more of a hindrance to newbies than a help
true, though it wouldn't be so bad if macos had a built-in package manager instead of needing to reach for homebrew (as great as it is)
link