Drawing Connections in DH :Coding, Voltaire and Ice Cream

Brief Introduction

After a couple readings done on the topic of coding, I gathered that coding is considered, by those familiar with its secrets, to be an extremely beautiful language. The perfection of its logic is described as exquisite. Many advocate for its distribution around the globe, affirming that *everyone* should learn it. Is this true, though? Should everyone learn to code?

My Thoughts on Coding

Prior to this course, my coding experience was next to nonexistent. After taking the beginners course on htmldog.com I became acquainted with the language of html to a point where I could recognize certain structures and understand their functions. I experienced some difficulty in actually implementing the tags in text editor, but with practice this will become easier (hopefully). I really enjoyed the HTML tutorial on how lists, links, headings and other attributes and elements work. The most complex concepts were the “forms” (data collected by user input), but in general, the tutorial was very useful in helping me understand the differences between HTML, CSS and JavaScript. 

Before I decided to give my opinion on this debate topic, I decided to research the exact definition of computer coding. Coming from someone who has never really clearly understood what this activity entailed, I found it helpful to set that question as a starting point to further the discussion. 

So, coding is the process of using/developing a text language to instruct computers to behave in a certain way. Some textbooks define coding as the use of “programming languages” as opposed to “text languages”, but I believe this definition to be less accurate seeing that languages such as HTML and CSS, considered “markup languages” are still codes. 

Okay, this means that after taking the beginners course in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript  I could affirm that I have learned to code. Somewhat… That having been said, I believe I can now comment on my position of supporting the statement that it would be great if everyone could learn to code, but that not everyone should know how to do so. 

Firstly, there are many levels of coding skillfulness, and according to a few articles I read, which will be linked below (by inserting <a> tags I recently learned how to use!) it takes a great amount of dedication and time to master the skills of coding to a point where it could be considered “marketable.” Just like learning any language, to code, one must be willing to sacrifice time and energy to become fluent. For some, this may be worth the effort, but for others it just might not. 

An assumption that is made behind the argument of why everyone should learn to code is that everyone would have access to the basic learning materials, which is simply unrealistic. So, would these individuals who have no knowledge of computer languages be rejected from positions of hiring? Would they be disregarded despite the other set of skills they carry? These are questions to consider. 

Donahue’s View

“Learning to program should be no more and no less enabling than reading Derrida”.

Donahue, in his article “A “Hello World” Apart (why humanities students should NOT learn to program)” states that it is more important to think about the “computer sciences” rather than worry about coding, and that both humanities and computer science use programming languages as a means of addressing the concerns of their areas. As he says “Learning to program should be no more and no less enabling than reading Derrida”(or should we say Voltaire…). Thus, if one of the arguments of why you should learn to code is based on the set of soft skills this could teach you, that argument becomes invalid, because these same skills are achievable through the humanities studies as well. 

Here’s a link to supplemental readings I made to help me think about the debate between coding and not coding.

This one talked about HTML not being a programming language but a code nonetheless.