HN Explorer

Show HN: My brother wrote this program from jail

48 points by throwaway0944 ↗ HN
Hi HN!,

My brother got a 5 years jail sentence but is coming out soon, a few months ago he decided to learn to code with no prior experience.

I find the way he is studying very inspirational so decided to post his (simple) program.

But first, here is what he needs to go through to learn:

- We the family send him javascript and html books - He studies them and writes programs in pen and paper - He calls me so I input what he wrote on my computer and we debug it live via a phone call, he has to imagine the program in his head.

The crazy part is up until a few days ago he didn't have access to a computer. However! another inmate has an upcoming trial and because the contents of his trial contain to many papers, they provided this inmate with a simple laptop (no internet).

My brother is not allowed to touch this laptop and he can only see this inmate 1 hour a day, so he convinced the inmate to sit next to him for my brother to tell him what to type, the other inmate types in the html+js on a notepad file and this way my brother can finally see his programs on a screen after months of only imagining how to program.

Here is the program we wrote today:

https://codepen.io/throwaway0944/pen/dyMpqJq

My dream is for this to get some traction so when he calls I can tell him his program has users :)

13 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 39.1 ms ] thread
imvetri
I tried and it worked great. My well wishes to your family
hallihax
Good on your brother - hope it helps after his release. It'd probably be an interesting read if you helped him set up a blog about his self-education whilst incarcerated!
llagerlof
Well, I did put 3 numbers in each one of these 3 text fields.

Clicked on button "Get Result".

The program gave me the sum of all values.

Job well done!

scott31
It seems buggy, typed numbers a = 18014398509481984, b = 1, and c = 1 and getting result "the sum of all inputs is 18014398509481984"
TeddyBones
I wouldn't say buggy, and definitely not to a beginner writing a program like this.

What you're seeing is a limitation of javascript. Big numbers need to use BigInt.

djbelieny
Regardless if the program works or not, the effort deserves all the props, in my book. Your brother just won the internet for the day. Well done.
imnotanerd
The dedication here is unmatched. Not only it's novice having to write programs on his head with no feedback but also all the hassle there is to run and debug these programs.

Just want to say I hope your brother can keep on this track, he looks on the way to success.

[dead] remoteworkjar
Wow - that's a very good Inspiration. All the very best to your bro!
Ladyady
Another user here, tell him to keep it up. I wish him and yourselves all the best.
temp-account
Made HN account just to comment at this post. Mad respect for your brother. I wish health to your family.