[quibono]

> The single biggest obstacle a beginner hits with any language is not the conceptual understanding. It is the install.

Is that _really_ the case? I find it very unlikely (not just in an OCaml context).

[belmarca]

Yes, definitely the case. Just imagine a class with 100 students, each with a system that has its own quirks (OS, browser, and a mix of versions, etc). We built codeBoot (https://codeboot.org) specifically for this reason!

[charcircuit]

In my experience you can just tell AI to install it and it will figure out all of those quirks on its own.

[QuadmasterXLII]

I remember this being true for me, a long, long time ago. There was something like a four year gap between me being able to munge linked lists in TiBasic and me being able to reliably install java and compile System.out.println(“hello world”)

[penteract]

Yes for me (although difficulty varies depending on what you're trying to install). I would have started programming 2 years earlier than I actually did if my first attempt to install tools to run a programming language had worked.

You have to precisely follow a sequence of instructions without the experience to understand their purpose, or any idea of how to fix things if you make a mistake.

Web technology is an exception to this. People already have a web browser, and ignoring mobile devices, browsers come with a js REPL.

[ladax72707]

You don't get to hit other obstacles if you don't have the ability to run the code and play with it.

[TylerE]

Yes. The reason I ended up being a python dev is that way back in the day there was a free, easy installer that ran on my machine, including a functional if basic IDE with syntax highlighting. This was Python 1.5 on a Mac Classic. Even getting a C compiler would have been a major lift, this was in the modem days so downloading was always an adventure.