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alexmojaki / futurecoder

100% free and interactive Python course for beginners
https://futurecoder.io/
MIT License
1.27k stars 132 forks source link

When an incorrect mode is detected, user isn't told what they did, only what they were expected to do #445

Open Yorwba opened 7 months ago

Yorwba commented 7 months ago

I recommended futurecoder to a friend and she ran into hurdle when the assessment said "The code is correct, but you didn't run it as instructed. Type your code directly in the shell after >>> and press Enter." because she thought she had followed the instructions and didn't understand what was wrong.

After some trial and error, I figured out that the problem was with running the code in the editor instead of the shell. You could argue that careful reading should be enough to reveal this, but I think most users encountering this message are already not reading the instructions carefully.

So I think it would be easier to understand if in addition to incorrect_mode and expected_mode_shell, there were also actual_mode_editor ="You ran the code in the editor."

alexmojaki commented 7 months ago

I like the idea, and I would accept a PR, but if people can't read the existing instructions then I'm not too optimistic that more instructions will fix it.

oskarissimus commented 6 months ago

Interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to measure somehow where people are most often getting stuck, It would be nice feedback to improve course. As I learned programming years ago I no longer remember what is actually hard for a beginner :p