I considered posting this in Developer's Corner, but I think it should live here...

CodeCombat: Learn to Code by Playing a Game
Learn programming with a multiplayer live coding strategy game. You're a wizard, and your spells are JavaScript.

http://codecombat.com/


Well, Javascript & Python, with experimental use of Lua, Clojure, and a few others.

I played through a few levels, at first it was a bit boring, as you are limited to directions - 'self.moveRight()', that kind of thing.  But like any good adventure game, you pick up money and items along the way and are shown new programming tricks to access new your new abilities and items to get through the different mazes.  Very good for introducing programming to pre-to-mid-teens who haven't already picked up some javascript...

From now until the end of the month, get $4,500+ worth of design assets & creative services and pay what you want!

All proceeds support Watsi, a charitable organization dedicated to funding life changing medical treatments for people that otherwise might never be able to afford them.

Some highlights:

• $1,116 worth of goodies from Creative Market (worth grabbing just for this)
• Skillshare Premium Membership for 6 Months
• $1000 value StackSocial design bundle
• and more!

https://payitforwardbundle.com

An interesting use case for Stenotype.

This looks pretty amazing to me:

"Starting with vector artwork on your computer — or following along as you sketch in real time — the WaterColorBot dips its brush in water, goes and gets the right color of paint, and paints before your eyes... While earlier versions of the WaterColorBot came as a kit (with some assembly required), the WaterColorBot 2.0 comes assembled, tested, and ready to use. It also comes with a starter set of watercolor paints, paper, and a brush. Please see the FAQ below for a more detailed list of the kit contents."

http://shop.evilmads...com/productsmenu/605

https://www.google.c...contributor/welcome/

Contributor by Google
An experiment in additional ways to fund the web.
Today’s Internet is mostly funded by advertising. But what if there were a way to directly support the people who create the sites you visit each day?

Introducing Contributor by Google.

My largest problem with this... is that it's by Google.

The basics

Choose a monthly contribution.

Visit participating sites.

Support the people who make the web.

It seems a lot like patreon.

Visit participating sites.
When you visit a participating website, part of your contribution goes to the creators of that site. As a reminder of your support, you’ll see a thank you message - often accompanied by a pixel pattern - where you might normally see an ad.

In theory, it seems like a good idea.  In practice... well, Google long ago abandoned the do no evil pledge.

I've spent most of my life coding C++, and dabbling in other languages (most recently Python).

But the list of programming languages that I've never written a line of code in is starting to get big, and I think it's time I put an end to that.

So I've decided I'm going to try to do a little experimenting with other programming languages, and wanted other coders here to join me, and post your updates here.

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For my first stop on the tour, I spent today coding in Go.

I was inspired to write a program to solve a homework assignment given to the daughter of one of our fellow DC members.

The assignment is as follows:
"Given a set of numbers, and a target value, find an expression using + - * / and which uses each of the numbers exactly once, which reaches the target."

For example, given the numbers [2, 3, 6, 15] find an expression that reaches the target value of 7.
Answer: 2+(15/(6-3))

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Note that there may be multiple expressions that reach a given target value.  Rather than find a specific solution to a specific problem -- I was more interested in writing a program that would find ALL possible expressions given a set of n numbers, and then looking for particular targets which have few possible solutions, reasoning that these would be nice and hard puzzles to solve.

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I started out by trying to calculate a formula for the # of possible expressions of n numbers.  That turned out to be a very fun mathematical journey, and I encourage the mathematically inclined among you to give it a try.  I'll share my formula later so as not to spoil the problem.

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Anyway, so today I coded this program in Go.  Looks like about 400 lines of code, and definitely a non-trivial and interesting project.
Speed and memory seemed quite reasonable, no complaints there.  Error messages were reasonable.
I'll post the source code soon after I give anyone else a chance to have some fun.
However, I can't say I really enjoy Go after my day with it.  Some parts of it are ugly and unpleasant, and I don't approve of many of the language design decisions.
In fairness, this wasn't really something that made use of the real strengths of Go, so perhaps it wasn't the fairest of tests.

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Here's a test for you if you decide to try coding this program.  I will give out a prize of a free DC mug for anyone who can solve this by writing their own version of this program before I post my source code at the end of the month.
Given the numbers [2 3 4 5 6 7 8], find TWO good, and fundamentally different, solutions that yield the target value of "2741"