#computer programming languages for beginners

[puppet-is-studying]

Finished C++

Of course I have so much to learn, but I finished the basics of C++ and I am so happy!

C and C++ are done!

HTML, CSS and JavaScript I am coming for you!

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[riumori]

I'M GETTING OVERDRIVE ─── ZHAO JAMES

⌕ ⨳ 𝖼𝖺𝗇'𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗌𝗍 𝗒𝗈𝗎, 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗆𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝗆𝖾 𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗋𝖽𝗋𝗂𝗏𝖾 ♡ !

𝒮YN ╱ James doesn't know how else to explain this new feeling, it's a mix of everything that he's not used to. Whenever he sees you his heart goes boom, mind becomes a mess, and he stumbles over his feet. His response time slows down, almost as if he's come across a virus in his system—an error in his code. As the programmer of the robotics club, let's see if he can fix this one.

𝒫AIR programmer!james & crush-gn!reader ⸝⸝⸝

•ㄑ𝒞ONT ★ oneshot school au romcom hints at love at first sight

𓂅 you’re making my heart kungkung ugh i love this song its sooo cute. We love tws and cortis. i hate tech tho… enjoy this ig ╲ 1.1K+ ( 1165 words ) 

JAVA, A MULTIPLATFORM programming language that runs on multiple devices all across the world. It can help with powering applications, smartphone operating systems, and more. 

Python, easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. 

Lua, supports several programming styles. It mixes simple procedural syntax with powerful data description. 

There are an unknown number of coding languages out there, but these happen to be his favourites. They’re the ones that he recommends to beginner coders too. The most understandable ones. The most common fun ones.

Then there’s James, Zhao James. He’s more complicated. Way too complicated even for himself to understand. The code of his system is broken as if an error interrupted his script while he was asleep. The only problem is, it didn’t happen while he was asleep. He was wide awake and moving about perfectly in school. 

Until you came along. 

When he first saw you he short circuited, tripping over his feet the next step he took. The sparks from his wires fraying left him in a trance—you left him in a trance. His heart beeped in morse code, short and fast. His mind went ghost, his thoughts silent. You made him feel everything he’s never felt before the moment he saw you. It was only a split second and yet you left him feeling this way longer than that.

It’s been at least three weeks now, maybe a month even. He’s lost track. All he’s been focused on is trying to crack the code. Find out where he went wrong and fix it.

Not for one of the robots he programmed. Honestly, not even close. 

It’s for himself. 

He’s tried everything. All the way from hitting his chest to calm his racing heart whenever you’re near him, to chugging down bottles of water to cool his overheating figure. To his dismay, nothing worked. 

It’s embarrassing. The effect you have on him. He doesn’t even feel that nervous when they’re about to compete against another team. Scrimmages don’t even get him that worked up, and yet, you do. 

Someone he met however long ago. 

He doesn’t know, he lost track. 

The club room (more like classroom) air is still. The sound of the robot’s wheels turning and arms moving upwards fills the silence. James is watching intently, closely paying attention to the way things move. He’s trying to find any possible errors or bugs that he needs to fix, making a mental note of them as he goes. 

Fortunately, things are going smoothly. There’s nothing for him to change. He doesn’t even know why he’s doing another trial run, knowing that he’s tweaked nearly every line to his best abilities. Maybe he’s doing this for something else. Not to check for any other glitches and not to see how the robot moves either.

Perhaps, it's a distraction. A distraction from no one other than… you? 

“James! I’m so glad that I found you here.”

You’re smiling at him from the door, nearly six feet away from the boy. It’s a big club room and classroom, filled with desks for the learning processes and computers for everything else. 

Oh he’s screwed. 

His fingers start fumbling with the buttons on the controller, the robot doing moves he’s never seen before. With shaky hands, he places the controller down on the table he sits near as his heart rate starts to rise. All of his prior knowledge of the observation from before is gone. None of his mental notes stayed. 

He’s really screwed.

You’re approaching him, one foot in front of the other. He doesn’t know why he pays attention to it. The execution flow makes him swallow hard. You’ll be beside him in no time at this rate.

You pause as if someone lifted their finger off of your controller. As if someone ended your task. “Are you busy?” You question the boy that has a robot before him and a controller beside.

James looks down at the robot and then to the controller on the table. He doesn’t know what to say, a clear sign that his response time is slowing down… like always whenever you’re around. 

He feels like a clutz. 

“I’m not.” James replies and your eyes light up. You proceed with your way to James, walking down a line, laptop in hand. 

“There’s something wrong with my laptop.” You begin as you place the device in front of him.

You’re too close. James already struggles enough when you’re in his vicinity. This is too much for him—too out of code. He’s not used to it and he can’t understand it either. Why does he feel this way? It’s all too new for him.

“I think there’s a virus on it… I’m not tech savvy or anything and you were the first person who came to my mind too.” 

The moment you turn on your laptop, a pop-up appears despite the slowness of the device. It’s definitely a virus. 

“I don’t know anyone else who’s as good as you. You’re the club’s programmer after all, it’d only make sense to go to you, right?” You joke, a smile on your face as you let out a laugh.

He’s so screwed.

“Anyway, is there a way to fix this?”

James nods, his glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose from the movement. He’s too stiff to even adjust them. 

On the other hand, you’re feeling overjoyed. This is the answer you’ve been hoping for, a nod, a yes, maybe even an of course. Luckily, you got one of them. The downside of this whole plan is that you aren’t able to stay until he’s done. Hell, getting this little bit of free time to even come to the club room was risky enough.

“That’s great! Thank you so much, James.” You thank the programmer who peers up at you through his unadjusted glasses.

“Sadly I can’t stay. Mr. T is on my case for even leaving his classroom. I’ll be finishing up a lab. If you’re done before I’m back, you can find me in his classroom!” 

And just like that, you’re gone. You take your leave with ease after leaving James a mess. He sighs, getting up from his seat to pick up the robot and return it to its spot before getting to work. That’s all he had to do, simple right? 

No.

He can’t even walk, stumbling over his feet the moment he steps down off his stool. He crouches down on the spot, head in hands.

Great, his heart is beating fast, mind is quiet, and he can’t even bring himself to walk. There’s only one thing he can come to conclusion with. It’s not with what he’s feeling or why he feels this way. Instead, it’s simple. 

The only way any of this could possibly make sense to him. With the way his heart rate jumps numbers every second, there’s no doubt about it.

James is most definitely getting overdrive.

CORTIS PERM TAGLIST — @ihankaji @himewonu @modanisgf @beomniiz @lovehyeonie @moesthinking @ivvees-blog @one-chance-pls @beomtomie @ivehan @ninguitar @en-dream @itsactuallylina @shejustnostalgic @whlhql @emotiandon @tanghuyuj

© RIUMORI

[shepherds-of-haven]

Can I ask you more about how you did the twine version of the game? Mainly what coding program did you use (I am new to coding and not sure which program might be good for a beginner/worth learning)? I really love the card part of your game.

Hi, I talk more about what coding resources and languages I learned for the Twine version of the game here! I really recommend reading that post if you haven't read it already!

To make the Shepherds Twine version, I used Twine SugarCube, which is the most expansive and flexible but arguably the most 'advanced' version of Twine. (Other Twine formats include Harlowe, Snowman, and Chapbook.) If you have a long-term vision for your game and think it will require advanced features, as Shepherds did, starting with SugarCube is the most "efficient" way of doing things: it's a steeper learning curve, but it ensures that you won't have to switch to a different format down the road in order to add more complex features. If you're just starting out and want to learn how to code interactive fiction, period, starting with Harlowe is probably less intimidating and may help you get a grasp of the basics of IF better!

Likewise, if you just want to learn how to code, starting out with the visual Twine 2 native app (where you code in little boxes as part of a branching tree) is probably best!

If you want to make a Shepherds-like game right out of the gate, I used TweeGo, which is more similar to ChoiceScript's CSIDE: it's a compiler that allows you to write all of your code in a text editor like NotePad or Sublime Text, and then just run the game from those text files, "compiling" them all into a single playable game file. If you're asking me, TweeGo is absolutely necessary if you're making a huge text RPG like Shepherds. After a certain point, all of the little text boxes and choice boxes in the Twine app won't be able to handle--I don't know--over 100,000 words? That's an arbitrary number, I haven't tested it myself, but I know that after a certain point, trying to open so many choices and passages will just turn your computer into an oven, if not crash the program altogether, so writing in plain text files through TweeGo becomes absolutely necessary if you have ambitions to make a large Twine game. Otherwise, the Twine 2 app works very well for beginners, game jams, or more typically-sized Twine games!

If you want the technical details, I use TweeGo in a version of this workflow (beware, this will look very confusing and intimidating if you're new to programming and development), and I use VS Code as my text editor to write in. It even has a handy syntax highlighting for Twine that you can install!

If you want a very simple tutorial on how to set up and install Tweego rather than doing it my way (which I don't think is necessary for a beginner), @manonamora-if made a wonderful, easy-to-use tutorial and installation guide here!

As for the cards, those were made with a mix of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, all of which becomes necessary to know when making a Shepherds-like game in Twine! If you're cool with starting out with something simpler, I wouldn't worry too much about all that and just focus on getting the basics of IF coding and writing down, first!

I hope that's helpful! And thanks for enjoying the game!

[trjwritings]

R.T.F.M.

"She's just right through there," said your boss. "It's something to do with...I forgot what she said. Excel or or something." He gestured at a door that read "MARIE TRAVERS, DATA ENTRY, ACCOUNTING."

"Thank you sir." You looked over his shoulder, willing as much meaning as you could into the gesture. "What time did you say your meeting was?"

He pulled out his phone and looked, frowning, at the screen. "If I leave now, I'll make it. Let me know what the fix was." You could have sworn he said something else, but he was already facing away from you and walking off before he started his next sentence.

You opened the door to Marie's office. "Miss Travers? I'm from IT."

Under normal circumstances, you would have been polite enough to knock. Then again, under normal circumstances, somebody in data entry wouldn't have her own office, and she certainly wouldn't have looked like "Massive" Marie Travers.

She yelped as you opened the door, frantically minimizing a window whose contents you couldn't quite discern. She whirled around in her oversized office chair, shooting you a look that was equal parts glare and embarrassed blush.

"Did--did you knock? Sorry--" she stammered.

This reaction would have been far less threatening, even cute, from another woman. Marie was different though. Standing well over ten feet tall, she could look down at you even while seated. Even in her outlandishly-large office chair, her immense thighs were squeezed together, creating a soft expanse of flesh that could have filled up the back seat of your sedan. Her thighs and ass, the latter of which could have probably crushed your sedan, stretched her pants taut to the point of translucence. She was wearing a low-cut top, showing off a bust that appeared to be far heavier than you could lift. On a woman of Marie's height but more normal proportions, they would have been huge. On a normal woman's height, they'd probably break world records. On her, however, they seemed to blend in perfectly with her imposing size. You imagined her grabbing you and pulling you in, your head vanishing completely into her cleavage without a trace as the rest of her soft, all-encompassing--

You realized you were staring.

"Yes," you lied. "Sorry, I wasn't very loud. You were probably focused on something." You looked over her shoulder at the monitor, seeing the telltale icon of an incognito window on her taskbar. "Very focused."

Marie smiled, a little less guiltily than she should have. "Yeah, work's been a little intense lately," she said. "Especially after your last visit."

Your heart skipped a beat.

-------------

Two weeks ago, you were a normal IT drone, and Marie Travers was 5'2". You had gone out drinking with some college friends, noticing that all of them were either dating or married, and left early to go sulk about your 5-year-long streak of being single.

As you waited on the curb, tipsily struggling with your Uber app, however, you noticed a strange storefront, one you hadn't noticed . Dismissing your fears, you walked in.

10 minutes, and a pleasant-yet-foreboding conversation with the goth chick who ran the place, and you walked out with a book titled "COSMOS: A Beginner's Guide to Reality Programming."

COSMOS, as it turned out, was a simple enough language to learn. A couple search functions, some guesswork with variable names, and a quick hand with the "undo_recent_changes" command were all you needed to make some introductory tweaks to your life. Your job was within walking distance now. You made enough money to live on your own. Your mattress no longer gave you a backache. Still, you had to be careful.

Marie was your first experiment with larger changes. You installed a simple background process on her computer while fixing a security glitch that you had caused. It was meant to test out a variety of functions you weren't familiar with, the most visible of them being a triggered physical alteration. Every hour that she goofed off at work, her "size" variable would increment by 1, whatever that meant, and her past would adjust accordingly to ensure that her new stature and assets would easily be explained away.

You hadn't accounted on Marie being a chronic slacker. By the end of the first week, she'd grown large enough to require more space than her colleagues, space which she'd taken advantage of to slack off even more. Now, she was too large for anything but an office, which, as you had anticipated, meant she'd be spending more time slacking off than actually working. You vaguely remembered hearing rumblings from HR in this new timelines, complaining about ordering new furniture to accommodate the new hire. You weren't sure if you wanted to uninstall the program yet, and you had aid this visit to help you make that decision.

---------

"Oh. Sorry about that," is all you managed to say. Now it was your turn to blush. "I'll see if there's any fixes I still need to make." You stepped in closer to the desk, half-readying yourself to sit down when you realized your predicament. "Um. If you uh. Do you have any, um. Smaller chairs?"

"Don't bother, cutie." Marie's tone turned sultry. You were about to turn around, when a pair of immense hands grabbed you under the shoulders and pulled you back. Your feet left the ground as you felt yourself being hoisted onto her soft thighs, each far wider than your body. You felt the warmth of her breasts through your shirt, her cleavage pressing up against your upper back and the base of your neck. "I'm far more comfortable." Marie scooted herself towards her desk, sealing off any hope of escape you had. She brought her keyboard--a model far larger than any you'd seen, but still comically small for her--closer towards you.

You pulled up the command line and type in a few characters. "Um--so what's the problem you've--uh--" You heart was beating a mile a minute as you remembered the other code you left in that background process.

"My problem is that my computer is too small," she said. You didn't dare turn around, but her grin was audible. "And I know why."

The words "I know" shot through you like a bullet. "I--what? How? Why?"

Without a word, Marie grabbed your head and tilted it backwards, showing you the pendant of a choker that, until this point, you hadn't seen. She leaned forward, touching it to the middle of your forehead.

A chill ran through you as the world seemed to pulse with new knowledge. The computer before you seemed to glow with an enchanted light; the growth spell, the reality alterations that would let a 10-foot-tall woman blend into the office, the security measures you put in place, all emanated from the monitor like an aura. With it, came an undeniable awareness of the magic it possessed.

From behind you came a strange, cold sensation that sent tingles down your spine and knowledge directly into your brain.

"Your necklace--magic, but--"

"An awareness enchantment," said Marie. You swear you could hear her tongue running along her teeth. "I got it as a going-away present after I worked with Mistress Amaranthe. I think you know her." Her tone brooked no disagreement.

"Yes. I--we talked."

"It's nothing special. It just lets me see if anything around me is magic. A lucky penny here, a cursed traffic light there, a computer that makes me to tall to stand up indoors and gives me an ass that gets stuck in my office door--"

"I can explain!" You tried to scoot off of Marie's lap, but your legs wouldn't respond. As though sensing your fear, Marie grabbed you by the waist, spun you around, and sat you on her desk, facing her.

"Why?"

"I--I didn't mean for you--I was just experimenting, and--please don't be mad?"

Marie smiled at you. It didn't make you feel better.

"Mad? Why would I be mad? I might not know what code you put in that program, but I know what it does."

You flash back to the night you wrote the program. Code flashes through your mind.

if size_is_incremented:

Marie.pleasure_at.size.increase(1)

"Oh," you said. "That was um. That was just supposed to make you feel better about yourself. Like, if you got too big, I didn't want it to screw up your life too much."

"Oh, it did," said Marie. An edge crept into her voice. "I didn't date during high school. Or college. They had to have a second podium at my graduation ceremony. They worried if One-Ton Travers got on the stage, she'd break it."

You blinked. "And...um. You're--"

"I'm One-Ton Travers, yes." A darkness passed over her face, then melted away. "Still, I guess it didn't fuck me up too much. It was really fun seeing people stare at me. Hearing their voices quiver. Thinking about what'd happen if I managed to take one home with me."

You realized she still had a hand on your thigh. She tightened her grip. "Um. Do the people in your fantasies...live?"

"Mostly."

You grab Marie's fingers and try to pry them off of you. "Well, that's great and all, but I'd really like to get to work."

"You would?" Marie looked almost disappointed. "That security measure suggested otherwise."

You blink and remember what you typed.

if program.discovered_by(Marie):

Marie.regard_for(Programmer).increase(500)

At the time, you had assumed that "regard_for" just meant professional respect. Judging by the fact that Marie had just grabbed you off of her desk and had her tongue jammed down your throat, you guessed you were wrong. You stopped struggling. You knew you didn't have a chance.

Marie pulled out of the kiss with a growl. "You've got two minutes to change your code," she told you. "Then I'm dragging you into a supply closet." She faced you towards the computer again.

With quivering fingers, you opened up your code. You knew that the next few lines you wrote would be the most important of your life.

You typed.

nearest.supply_closet.size += 1000

Programmer.bone_strength += 1000

Marie.size.increase(50, focus="bust")

As Marie lifted you into the air and stood up, you hit "run program." She held you firmly against her swelling tits, chuckling softly as she walked towards the office door.

"Good choice, little man."

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

My fan made Animation vs Coding part 2

Do you think stick figure AI would "assume" data type of all number to be float, double, or decimal?

...What? This is not a well-known fun fact outside STEM community?

So many people have this problem, someone made a whole webpage explaining it.

More organic explanation here; Defining a right data type is a big deal in programming. At least the programmer who manually assign it float/double would know why it went wrong.

JavaScript, however, will automatically assign an appropriate data type, and is advertised to be more beginner-friendly... Can you see why this became a meme?

0.1 and 0.2 will be considered double data type, which can't be accurate expressed in base 2.

There is only (1/2), (1/4), (1/8), ... ,(1/(2 power n)) in base 2.

It can't accurately express (1/10 and 2/10), but it still makes a very good approximation. That is why it is only 0.00000000000000004 off.

This is why in most statistic analysis and calculator use decimal data type. Or banking uses fixed-point numbers data. They both have their limitation; Decimal requires more computing power, which mean more specialized device. While fixed-point works fine with money because it's transferring money, not doing maths. It would never have to deal with 0.3333333... dollar.

Do you know what language is from the same family as JavaScript? That's right, it's Flash's programming language, ActionScript.

I told you my Computer Science grade was horrid, but this is very basic, so I am more confident explaining it.

[adafruit]

🎄💾🗓️ Day 2: Retrocomputing Advent Calendar brings us the TRS-80! 🎄💾🗓️

Released in 1977, the TRS-80 (also lovingly called the "Trash-80") was a popular personal computer by Radio Shack and Tandy Corporation. Designed for affordability and approachability, it was one of the first mass-market computers, bringing computers into homes, schools, and small businesses.

Powered by a Zilog Z80 processor running at 1.77 MHz, the TRS-80 Model I came with 4KB of RAM (expandable to 16KB) and an 8KB ROM, preloaded with the Microsoft BASIC programming language. Its black-and-white display supported a resolution of 64x16 characters. It used external cassette tapes for storage, which offered a low-cost solution before floppy drives became more available.

The TRS-80's also had an ecosystem. Radio Shack offered complete setups, monitors, printers, and software - making it easy for beginners. The machine became a favorite for hobbyists and programmers, popularizing early text-based adventure games, educational software, and business applications.

Eventually overtaken by the IBM PC and Apple systems, the TRS-80's legacy lives on!

I had some so-so photos, but these from the Smithsonian are the best I've seen, along with their section on their site -

Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 Microcomputer | Smithsonian Institution

Have TRS-80 memories, or retro computing memories? Post’em up in the comments, or post yours on socialz’ and tag them #retrocomputing #firstcomputer #electronics see you back here tomorrow!

[bunnydevs]

Hiii! Really sorry if you've been asked this already (if so, could you kindly direct me to that post, please?) but how does one get into coding? I've had several attempts but it's all too overwhelming and I don't want to invest money into it yet. Nice blog!

Hiiya !! Please don't apologize ~ I love sharing and getting asks◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜. So there's a few things you should understanding about code/programming.

The first is that you don't need to spend money to get started by any means. If this is just a hobby for you please don't worry about money. I do recommend using a laptop or computer rather than a phone. However if you only have a phone, it can work in a pinch. It's just.. much slower and more difficult if i'm being quite honest.

Now we can get into the nitty gritty ! You need to identify what kinda stuff you wanna build and why. That's important for development roadmaps. As an example: building a game using free resources online will have a completely different language used than building a neocities site. BUT, here's my recommendations.

-> start small : html + css is a great way to get started for beginners. This is all it takes to build a cute site on neocities. It may not necessarily function (e.g. clicking a button won't make a popup appear) but it helps you wrap your mind around how things work.

-> tutorial hell : nearly everyone goes through this at some point. This is a phase in which you watch + follow tons of tutorials but if a blank document is in front of you.... you understand nothing. Avoid this by : ..leaving comments within your code ..trying to build something yourself first and then using a tutorial ..watch the tutorial, take notes, then try to do it yourself

"But how do I actually start?"

If you're going the neocities route to begin...

step one: download visual studio code + sign up for neocities step two: follow any html course online (i used codecademy) step three: look for website inspo (like carrds on pinterest etc) and design your website in figma (or use someone elses base) step four: create a folder labeled "neocities site" and inside that folder create two more. one labeled "img" and another labeled "misc assets" step five: open visual studio code and paste an html boilerplate in, then start typing.

this sets an organized way to manage assets like icons, gifs, color palettes etc in your visual studio. it will help you massively to stay organized. you will run into many many roadblocks which is completely normal.

Check out by studystack here! I definitely recommend keeping something like w3 schools open in a tab so you can navigate through and look up tutorials. There's also LOTS of resources on codepen, github, etc. If you use something like that, I highly recommend you leave notes in your code so that you don't get lost and you learn about what you're putting down.

And I'll also be making a few little tutorial posts + note posts soon.

Other resources include: harvard's free cs50 course cs50's intro to game development @izzycodes (she has SO many resource posts !!)

I hope you have a wonderful day, please feel free to send asks with any other questions or notes you've got !! You TOTALLY have this.