Google has dozens of popular products and services, but for each of those, there's a handful of experimental apps that you've probably never heard of. Many of them are devised at Google's workshop for experimental products, Area 120, and they often times never become anything more than a fun distraction that showcases an interesting new technology or feature. This is not the case with Grasshopper, Area 120's new mobile game that aims to help you learn the basics of JavaScript through fun puzzle games.
Grasshopper is akin to Duolingo, in that it is geared toward people with little or no experience at all, and in that it won't turn you into a coding wiz overnight, no matter how much you'd like that. Upon opening the app for the first time, you'll be asked if you have any experience in coding, after which you'll complete a short tutorial, and then you'll be able to pick your practice schedule. Of course, polishing your coding skills daily is the recommended thing to do.
The courses in Grasshopper are cleverly designed as a series of puzzles and quizzes that increasingly get more difficult:
“Each coding puzzle has the student writing real JavaScript code using a custom built code editing environment. The student is given a challenge, and the user has to solve it using code, but it only takes a few taps to write out,” says Laura Holmes, founder of Grasshopper.
If you're interested in learning JavaScript, but have no idea where to begin, Google's Grasshopper is a good starting point.
Download Grasshopper:
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