Mark Mahoney
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mark.playbackpress.com
Mark Mahoney
@mark.playbackpress.com
160 followers 270 following 110 posts
CS professor at Carthage College

Creator of Storyteller and founder at Playback Press
https://markm208.github.io/
https://playbackpress.com/books

I love helping people learn how to read and write code.
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mark.playbackpress.com
Mark Mahoney @mark.playbackpress.com · Nov 26
Are you new to code playbacks? Here is a short video explaining how to view them:

How to View a Code Playback
youtu.be/uYbHqCNjVDM

If you have any questions DM me.
How to View a Code Playback
YouTube video by Mark Mahoney
youtu.be
mark.playbackpress.com
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.
November 15, 2025 at 11:00 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
November 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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!
September 26, 2025 at 1:16 AM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
August 20, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Mark Mahoney
freecodecamp.bsky.social
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-...
July 29, 2025 at 12:02 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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...
Learn how to make your own guided code walkthroughs
www.reddit.com
July 22, 2025 at 7:26 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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!
July 18, 2025 at 3:38 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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!
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!
www.eventbrite.com
July 16, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Mark Mahoney
freecodecamp.bsky.social
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...
July 1, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Mark Mahoney
freecodecamp.bsky.social
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...
July 1, 2025 at 4:01 AM
mark.playbackpress.com
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!
New AI Assistant Interface
YouTube video by Mark Mahoney
youtu.be
July 7, 2025 at 4:30 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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.
July 1, 2025 at 2:52 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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...
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.
www.eventbrite.com
June 19, 2025 at 7:56 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
May 29, 2025 at 7:05 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
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...
www.freecodecamp.org
May 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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...
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.
www.eventbrite.com
May 6, 2025 at 8:29 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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...
April 19, 2025 at 5:20 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
Kenosha WI (a few days back)
March 23, 2025 at 9:05 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
March 23, 2025 at 8:32 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
💾 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!
Image of a code playback.
March 16, 2025 at 6:57 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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.
January 21, 2025 at 8:07 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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.
January 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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.
January 6, 2025 at 5:30 PM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
January 3, 2025 at 2:38 AM
mark.playbackpress.com
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
December 21, 2024 at 7:49 PM