Question

Just an idea mates: what do you think about creating an IRC (or something like that) channel for the group, so that we can chat/solve quick question through it. The chat function in OS is still quite bugged, and, due to the fact that people end the course and go look for other stuff, we might be able to keep in touch, for general questions, projects, bibliography, stuff like that. Again, I was just pondering about this, don't know if it's feasible or not.

Answer 1

I think it is great idea for those interested to keep in contact. An outside source might be an option, but then the downside would be that older members who pop in to have a look may not see it...

I would like to be part of anything like that... not that I am at that stage yet, but have spoken and been helped and hopefully also helped people whom I would wish to keep ties with, and it is a great idea with regards to helping on projects etc...

(For the record, I am using a new account but actually I was here a few months back, very active...)

I'm sure people who go through a 'real' uni course would have such contacts that we are missing out on a little by leaving and cutting ties.

Another idea may be that OS opens a course for 'Advanced Python' or something, not out of the question seeing as this course attracts so many people... yet as you said, it is still buggy...

yeah, I think its a great idea :)

Answer 2

there is a python irc channel - #python
they spot a newbie right off the bat by the questions you ask but they take the time to give answers on python questions

Answer 3

@bwCA, I know about the python channel and use it quite often, albeit I only stay there reading the questions and answers to digest more info. But my idea for the IRC channel was a different one: I believe that, due to the fact that this is an online course, we lose quite a bit of an important part of learning to program, that is group work, or at least working with collaborators and accepting criticism - before struggling on a problem that you approached differently. Really, it might be out of the scope for this course, and if it is, I retract from the idea, it was just to try and implement a more instantaneous way of communicating - for "technical" questions regarding setup of python, questions about the course itself, including questions about the assignments, general computer science questions, or just random trivia. At least for me, it makes the learning process much more dynamic.

@Joz1, Yup, that's a great problem that I would like to address with this, i.e., people leaving after completing the course, and never coming back - even if it's only to chitchat. I actually did a part of this course (tried to at least) a long time ago, but I had to quit because I was having other concerns at that time. Now that I revisit my months-old code, I see a lot of wrong stuff and I learn from myself. I learn even more from reading other people's code and reading constructive criticism about my code. That is a rejoicing experience, that could happen more often, if we had a more dynamic organization. (again, the main idea is to "replace", at least temporarily, the fact that the chat function and the OS interface is sluggish/bugged.)

Answer 4

IMO what you really want is an established programming group, and one that isn't terribly judgmental of newly minted ones at that. I don't know of any English-speaking ones. If you create a new one, you won't get the traffic that you'll need for it to be as responsive as you're looking for. I'm quite interested in finding such a thing, though. I'll do some research and let you know what I find.

Answer 5

I found an existing forum within the Ubuntuforum.org. I'm learning bash right now & I'm finding the Ubuntu forum wildly helpful. Perhaps the Programming Talk forum would be equally as helpful. And you're going to have thousands of existing members to answer questions.

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=39

I also am friends with several professional developers. I asked them & I'll let you know if they know of any existing forums.

Answer 6

@JulieNewbie, yeah I recon the traffic would be an issue. If you find something else, please let me know. I will check ubuntuforum, thanks for the tip :-).

Answer 7

Found another one, it was recommended by a friend who's a professional developer:
http://stackoverflow.com/
I know that on ubuntuforum.org, they are tolerant of new programmers. I was lurking it and found several threads started by obvious students- those resulted in good answers. Don't know how they treat inexperienced folks on stackoverflow.

Answer 8

Never tried the chat on SO, will try it. I checked the ubuntuforum, sounds cool. Those challenges are interesting, coupled with Euler, and some other courses online should be fine :-). Thanks JulieNewbie.