How One Developer Got the Internet To Watch People Code

blottsie writes: While Twitch TV is generally used for livestreaming gameplay, Alexander Putilin has other plans for the platform. Putilin and his girlfriend are using Twitch to build a community of software developers and students who broadcast complex floating point operations and algorithm design to the rest of the world. The community is responding and growing alongside its newfound popularity. WatchPeopleCode is now facilitating live hackathons (there was one this weekend), enabling programmers to meet and collaborate with people that they'd otherwise never be able to.

Comments

and produced

[Tablizer]

the first A.I. yawn

Well, the jig is up for them now.

[stimpleton]

"...who broadcast complex floating point operations and algorithm design to the rest of the world..." IE live coding like a tech presentation.

Not for much longer now the cat is out of the bag.

Twitch is not a replacement for Justin.tv. Justin.tv not financially viable. Game streaming is, hence twitch.tv

From Twitch Rules: "Non-gaming, non-music content: Video games, board games, card games, fantasy sports, LARP games, and acceptable music content (see above). And while it's nice to take a break and just chill out with your audience, please ensure that your channel's primary focus is on gaming or music creation."

Re:Well, the jig is up for them now.

[JanneM]

[...] please ensure that your channel's primary focus is on gaming or music creation."

Sing your code. Problem solved.

So, "assert(Ieiei == True)"

becomes

"Aaaand IIIIIIIIIIeeeeiiiiiiieeeeiiii wiiiiilllll aaaalways be Ttrrrruuuuuuueeeeeeeee"

Re:Well, the jig is up for them now.

[smallfries]

At least it works for gaming. Watching somebody code using a small font size, in a tiny window, down-sampled to 720p and then compressed to hell is about as much fun as... watching someone code. What ever happened to doing?

Re:Well, the jig is up for them now.

[shadwdrak]

Interesting enough, I develop indie games for my studio 100% live on the internet. 8 hours a day in front of 100-200 people on average. I also make sure my encoding settings are able to work a screen full of text at 1080p.

Your question as to why watch instead of do? I ask, why not both? I have a lot of people who come hang out on my stream while they are developing their own projects. Hearing me constantly talking on my stream about my development or helping others fix their bugs keeps them motivated and on task. Also, my stream community is very active in chat with all levels of game/general/web developers. We are constantly helping people solve problems, or bounce ideas off of.

If you want to see how it's properly done sometime: http://www.twitch.tv/whilke

Re:Well, the jig is up for them now.

[shadwdrak]

Actually, Twitch a few months ago added a new channel called: Game Programming. It's also had a General Programming channel for longer than that. As long as you are streaming your programming to one of those channels you are completely within the rules of twitch. In fact, several streams have gotten partnered from streaming game development.

I stream all of my indie studio game development live to twitch in front of 100-200 people 8 hours a day, and there are many other game development streams.

If you want to see how streaming development is properly and entertainingly done: http://www.twitch.tv/whilke

Re:Somewhere to showcase my code now

[93 Escort Wagon]

Just incorporate an actual python into your python coding video - problem solved!

how did this make it to the frontpage,...

[Selur]

this is news how, come on there has den folks coding in their youtube-channel for ages,...
don't really see whats special or new about this,..

Re:LOLWUT

[Anonymous Coward]

This. Unless you're watching a hands-on demonstration which requires, well, hands to be on something and manipulating it (and, no, entering code isn't a manual skill - when my RSI was bad some days I coded by voice, and it was slower but perfectly possible), you're wasting your time.

What is more, first rule of code: good code takes ages to design and refine. If you're genuinely watching someone write good software, you'll be spending hardly any time watching them at an editor window. Those 24 hour hack-a-thons are fueled by the same testosterone that makes young men drive fast cars - they have an inflated sense of their own skill, and a false sense of urgency when it comes to needing to demonstrate it. Nothing very interesting comes from them.

While I'm still fairly young and stupid, give me someone wiser - and probably older - who teaches me to think slowly but correctly, please.

The fun of coding...

[Viol8]

.... is solving problems yourself and creating a working piece of code at the end along with a sense of achievement and self satisfaction.

The fun of coding is NOT the physical typing in of the code text along with edits, deletions what whatnots. So quite why anyone would want to watch someone *else* do it frankly is beyond me. If you want to learn to code in language XYZ go buy a book or look at some example code online then most importantly try it yourself.

Re:The fun of coding...

[GroeFaZ]

Come on. You can use the same argument on broadcasting basically any activity, sports and music in particular. What's the fun in watching someone play tennis or the violin when you can do it yourself? Well, some can't do it themselves, and most cannot do it nearly as proficiently as the talents/professionals they are watching. Word mincing aside, there is an actual "Ludum Dare" channel on Twitch already. It lets people broadcast how they write a video game over a weekend, and I can assure you it has several thousand viewers when it's on, so there's your proof that there is an audience for people writing code.

Example

[StripedCow]

This guy was trying a new editor named "vi", but didn't know how to properly exit it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...