iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 28/01/2026

My site to share programming concepts, Playback Press, crossed 180,000 playback views this year. I built it to replace textbooks in my courses. Now people I've never met are using it too. Check them all out here: playbackpress.com/books

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Reposted by Mark Mahoney

freeCodeCamp.org @freecodecamp.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

As a web dev, you'll use many tools & frameworks when you're building websites & apps. And to help you learn the key concepts, Mark created this guide. You'll learn front & back end Web Development basics like HTTP, Node, Express, JSON, HTML, CSS, React, & more. www.freecodecamp.org/news/an-anim...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 15/11/2025

I added a small but valuable feature to code playbacks on Playback Press. Since the hand drawn pictures and screenshots are so important to viewers I added a way to search for comments based on the pictures. Hit 'shift + /' on the keyboard to bring up the new media picker search dialog.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 12/11/2025

Now is a great time to learn some non-traditional programming languages. I have two free 'books' of code playback on #Clojure and #Elixir. playbackpress.com/books/cljbook playbackpress.com/books/exbook

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/09/2025

I’m looking for a little feedback. I am working on a playback describing #perceptrons for my #AI course. Here is a link to it: markm208.github.io/cppbook/ai/p... Reach out to me if you have any feedback!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 20/08/2025

I'm looking for experienced developers to write code playbacks for my platform. If you enjoy explaining your code and teaching others, code playbacks are a great way to share knowledge and build your reputation in the dev community. Get the details here: playbackpress.com/contact

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Reposted by Mark Mahoney

freeCodeCamp.org @freecodecamp.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Design patterns are solutions to common coding problems that show up often in your projects. And here, Mark explains how some key object-oriented design patterns work in Java. He covers patterns like Strategy, Singleton, Composite, Decorator, Observer, & more. www.freecodecamp.org/news/object-...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 22/07/2025

Learn how to make and use code playbacks in your CS courses on Tuesday July 29th at 1:00pm CDT. Join with a friend or come with your whole department! www.reddit.com/r/CSEducatio...

reddit.com

Learn how to make your own guided code walkthroughs

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 18/07/2025

I can’t quite believe it myself but… Playback Press has just crossed a major milestone: 40,000+ playback views in a 30 day period!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 16/07/2025

I’m hosting a free online zoom to discuss how to create code playbacks, how I use them in the classroom, and the best practices for using them. "Learn How To Share Your Code With Others With Code Playbacks" Jul 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM Central Time www.eventbrite.com/e/learn-how-... Please share!

eventbrite.com

Learn How To Share Your Code Examples With Others Via Code Playbacks

Learn about the tools and best practices to create and share code playbacks with others!

freeCodeCamp.org @freecodecamp.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Reposted by Mark Mahoney

C++ is a powerful, high-performance programming language devs use for things like systems & game development. And here, Mark teaches you the basics through a series of interactive exercises. You'll learn about variables, functions, vectors, pointers, & lots more. www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-p...

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Reposted by Mark Mahoney

freeCodeCamp.org @freecodecamp.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

As a web developer, you'll use many different tools and frameworks. And to help you learn the key ones, Mark created this guide. You'll learn both front & back end Web Dev basics like HTTP, Node, Express, JSON, Mongo, HTML, CSS, Web Components, and React. www.freecodecamp.org/news/an-anim...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 07/07/2025

Here is a quick video showing the new AI assistant interface to code playbacks: youtu.be/WAPql5KZFR4 These new features make code playbacks more interactive. Plus, viewers can review questions they have asked in the past. Check them out here: playbackpress.com/books Let me know what you think!

youtu.be

New AI Assistant Interface

YouTube video by Mark Mahoney

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/07/2025

It's been almost a year since I added the first AI assistant to code playbacks on Playback Press. They have been helpful to my students to fill in any gaps in their knowledge and to explore advanced concepts. Today I'm sharing a major update.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/06/2025

Just a reminder... in one week I'll be giving a free webinar on how to create and use code playbacks! You can click the link and get a free ticket or if you just want the zoom link DM me for it. www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-tex...

eventbrite.com

Beyond Textbooks and Videos: Creating and Sharing Code Playbacks

Join CS professor, Mark Mahoney, to hear about how he uses code playbacks in his computer science courses.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 29/05/2025

I'm particularly proud of this interactive tutorial that makes Elixir's functional and concurrent programming concepts approachable through animated code playbacks. 🎥✨ Great intro before diving into Phoenix or Nerves. 🌐🔌 🔗 playbackpress.com/books/exbook #Elixir #Programming

playbackpress.com

PlaybackPress

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 12/05/2025

I recently wrote two tutorials comparing different approaches to component-based web development. Both approaches solve similar problems but with different trade-offs: www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-brief... www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-brief... #WebDevelopment #JavaScript #React #WebComponents

freecodecamp.org

A Brief Introduction to Web Components

In a previous article, I gave a brief introduction to React. This tutorial introduces an alternative approach to building a component-based frontend. It covers the fundamentals of Web Components to bu...

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 06/05/2025

On June 26th 12CDT I am hosting a free webinar on creating and sharing code playbacks! Join me to learn how I use playbacks to teach about programming. www.eventbrite.com/e/1355457412...

eventbrite.com

Beyond Textbooks and Videos: Creating and Sharing Code Playbacks

Learn how to create and share guided code walkthroughs with the free, open-source Storyteller VS Code extension.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/04/2025

I have been posting to @freecodecamp.bsky.social lately with links to my code playbacks. This post covers SQL, practice problems, and coding with SQLite (C/C++, Python, Java) from my free books: playbackpress.com/books/sqlbook playbackpress.com/books/worked... playbackpress.com/books/sqlite...

playbackpress.com

PlaybackPress

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 23/03/2025

I'm using the wiki feature of GitHub's repos to host my updated documentation for Storyteller: github.com/markm208/sto... I also have this video which describes creating your own playbacks: youtu.be/LITe23OkSm0 Let me know if you want some help getting started! My students really like them.

Image of new documentation page in repo wiki

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 16/03/2025

💾 Want a quick intro to SQL? Watch me build a database for a fictional pet adoption center and write some SQL queries: 📌 Database Design and Simple SQL 🔗 playbackpress.com/books/sqlboo... SQL queries evolve step-by-step and playbacks show that process visually. They are a great way to learn SQL!

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 21/01/2025

Are you teaching a programming course this semester or learning to code? Here is my semi-annual reminder... I’ve written a dozen or so ‘books’ of code playbacks that are available for free (#CPP, #Python, #Clojure, #DesignPatterns, #Elixir, #SQL, #WebDev) on Playback Press playbackpress.com/books.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 08/01/2025

AI replacing sw devs? Imagine that you are being sued for a large sum of money. You could, right now, plug in the lawsuit and attempt to defend yourself with an AI model's knowledge of the law. However, no sane person would consider this.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 06/01/2025

I just added the ability to share a link to an exact point in a playback using either a comment number or an event number (check out the url in the video). This feature is perfect for students and instructors collaborating on questions, or for pro sw devs doing code reviews.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 03/01/2025

I love having a little time off at the end of the year to add some features to code playbacks. I have just added two new features to all playbacks on Playback Press: - comments can be read aloud for the viewer - search for comments based on selected code

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 21/12/2024

This last semester was the first one where I integrated an AI assistant into my code playbacks (via the #OpenAI API). The playbacks were used in my Computing Paradigms (#Clojure, #Elixir, #Ruby) and Data Structures (#C++) courses. Below are my observations from the semester. #AI #CodePlaybacks

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 15/12/2024

A few of us had a discussion about the role of AI coding assistants in CS ed. My feeling is that people who learned to code before AI assistants are probably more resilient and prepared to deal with uncertainty in the sw dev process. I could be wrong, but I thought I’d make this fake banner anyway.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 09/12/2024

Delivering engaging content is not the most important aspect of what teachers do (although it certainly doesn’t hurt). Much of what we do is gauge how well a student is learning and provide guidance on how to make it easier for them to learn. We also provide motivation for why learning is important.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 07/12/2024

A code playback is a guided code walk through of a problem and a solution. The code below is an #Elixir program that estimates poker probabilities using the random number generator and brute force: playbackpress.com/books/exbook...

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 01/12/2024

I have a feeling this will be a LinkedIn banner one day.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

Do you want to learn some basic #SQL? The video shows the first 'code playback' in my free introduction to #SQL: Database Design and SQL for Beginners playbackpress.com/books/sqlbook Watch me design and query a pet adoption database.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 26/11/2024

Take a break from holiday stress with a creative challenge: learn to program with code playbacks! 🎄💻 Hot topics this season: #Clojure, #Elixir, and beginner-friendly #SQL. And no need to wait for Black Friday—every book is already free! 🎉📚 Explore now: Playback Press playbackpress.com/books

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 19/11/2024

**Fizz-Buzz** I've been covering #Clojure in my computing paradigms course. I used the classic interview question ‘fizz-buzz’ a few times. The idea is to print numbers but print ‘fizz’ if a number is divisible by 3, ‘buzz’ if its divisible by 5, and ‘fizz-buzz’ if it is divisible by 3 and 5.

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 17/11/2024

Here are some of the drawings I made for my CS students this semester. Believe it or not I was an art major for a little bit.

Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 11/11/2024

I'm not sure if promoting my code playbacks is annoying or not (I hope not)... but I think they are a great way to learn about code. In my #Clojure 'book' I explain the basics for someone who has some programming experience. Check'em out: playbackpress.com/books/cljbook Let me know what you think!

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Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · 02/11/2024

I'm the code playback guy! I created Playback Press (playbackpress.com/books) to share my guided code walk-throughs that show how a program evolves step-by-step w/ a narrative from the author. Each playback has an AI assistant. They are all free! Full Vid: youtu.be/uYbHqCNjVDM #Coding #EdTech