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Tim Cook: Coding Languages Were 'Too Geeky' For Students Until We Invented Swift (thestar.com)

Posted by msmash on from the inventor-of-everything dept.

theodp writes: Speaking to a class of Grade 7 students taking coding lessons at the Apple Store in Eaton Centre, the Toronto Star reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook told the kids that most students would shun programming because coding languages were 'too geeky' until Apple introduced Swift. "Swift came out of the fundamental recognition that coding languages were too geeky. Most students would look at them and say, 'that's not for me,'" Cook said as the preteens participated in an Apple-designed 'Everyone Can Code' workshop. "That's not our view. Our view is that coding is a horizontal skill like your native languages or mathematics, so we wanted to design a programming language that is as easy to learn as our products are to use."

3 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Wait, what? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know Jobs had an RDF, and Cook presumably wants to copy that, but the RDF was supposed to affect the people around him, not himself. Does he really think Swift, which is another me-too language that looks like almost every other popular programming language except Python, is somehow not "geeky"? It's no more or less programmer hostile than Javascript FFS.

    Is Cook trolling? That's got to be it, right?

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  2. Tim Cook says a lot of shit. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because the CEO of Apple says something doesn't mean he's not totally full of shit. Does anyone honestly think removing the 3.5mm jack from the iPhone was about courage?

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  3. Tim Cook? Really? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's the man that thought removing a headphone jack from a cellphone is a good idea and that having non-replaceable batteries are what customers want.

    Who in their sane mind listens to an imbecile like that?

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