Ask HN: Can programming be learnt completely on smartphone?

Don't do it.

You can get a cheap Chromebook for $200, stick Ubuntu on it (https://www.lifewire.com/install-linux-on-chromebook-4125253), and finish both those EdX courses, probably before you can even get R and Python running on your phone. Plus you will be more motivated to finish the courses, having spent $200 and therefore proven your commitment.

If even $200 is too much, I guess you have to ask what you're doing with your life... maybe getting a stable job should take priority.

But it is going to be much, much harder to learn how to program anything with any decent level of complexity. Writing everything in a single file? Sure. Writing a java app which has 20 classes? Sounds like hell.

And while linux terminal isn't really programming, sending key combos like ^d sounds terrible on a phone keyboard.

Something else that PCs are much better at is context switching. Being able to alt+tab to documentation, or having that documentation on another monitor would be way better than having to switch back and forth. Although that can be remedied somewhat by using a book as a reference.

Something as simple as typing a constant in Java becomes much more difficult on a phone

private static final SOME_RANDOM_VARIABLE = RandomVariableFactory.getRandomVariable();

is not easy to write on most phone keyboards.

I think the biggest area that you'll struggle is that there isn't really any good IDE, or even editor out there.

I watch videos all the time on my phone which help me with programming. Those are easy. It's the actual doing and writing the code that will be a PITA on a phone.

May I ask why you're trying to program on a smartphone rather than picking up something like a cheap netbook?

Cheers!

Just get a cheap desktop and keyboard on Craigslist. I've found ones for as little as 20USD. Or you might be able to use a Raspberry Pi, if you're into that.

If you hooked up a keyboard, used emacs or vim as an editor, you would likely be able to program enough to pass a intro to programming course (with significantly more difficulty than anyone on a computer). In theory you could do a fair bit of development work on your phone, but in practice it would be far too much friction to develop any real (i.e. more complex than intro to programming assignments) software.

For full-blown development, it's not really suitable. Your phone is best used for reading technical material and watching video content.

Even if you can program on mobile, it's going to be painful. Perhaps less so with an external keyboard and SSH into a cheapo VPS instance, but you're still going to take a substantial productivity hit.

May I ask why you're going this route?

One thing to note probably is, he started very young. And in young ages people can learn very easily. I don't think I can learn programming in a smartphone in my current age. But for kids, whole different game.

Seeing that you have access to the internet I would second @rl3's suggestion about trying a (free or cheap) VPS service and SSHing to the machine, especially for snapshots, networking and better performance.

Also, if you can afford a vm in the cloud you could probably get an ssh client for your phone to log into it.

If you hook a Bluetooth keyboard to the phone you might just be able to really pull it off.

Edit; good luck :)

You'll definitely want a keyboard

Your phone is a terrible way to program...you will type 20x slower and see 10x less than a real screen. And you won't be able to quickly switch tabs, search Google, etc.

Just get a cheap laptop.

I just checked out the edx website now (never heard of it till now) but some of their courses look interesting, might check them out.

I doubt either SoloLearn or edx can make you a python or r master, but if you want to program in python, going over them + a few other tutorials and writing some test programs doesn't seem like a bad way to get started.