It'd be a hell of a lot easier to contribute to open source projects if step 0 wasn't "spend 8 hours configuring environment to build"

figging

This is a problem with all kinds of programming for new learners - actually writing some code is easy. But getting a development environment configured to actually allow you to start writing that code requires a ton of tacit knowledge.

okay how about ruby? oh I have old ruby , hmmm , try to install new ruby, seems to run, but it can't find certain gems or something. oh and this other ruby thing I was using is now broken ? why do I have to install this stuff globally? You don't but there are several magic spells you must execute and runes you must set in the rigtt places.

every time I mentor a new learner this is the number one sticking point

The biggest barriers to coding are technical complexity around processes like collaboration and deployment, and social obstacles like gatekeeping and exclusion — so that's what we've got to fix

But… on installing node.js you’re greeted with this screen (wtf is user/local/bin in $path?), and left to fire up the command line.

Get up and running in seconds.

build easy from source code

the ghcjs compiler. But it was a real pain, I Haskell but it's just getting it to install and run and compile, it's just kind of a nightmare