This may fall into the pro-coding side or the rejects-the-premise side, but honestly I think a binary “coder vs non-coder” mindset isn’t helpful here. No, most people involved in the digital humanities <i>need</i> to know how to code, especially to the extent that software engineers need to. However, knowing how to code provides at least two key benefits to any project you work on.
First, you have a much more realistic grasp of what is possible and what is not when it comes to the tech you’re using. I’ve heard (and been involved in) too many horror stories of project leads wanting programmers to do near-impossible tasks without compromise, simply because they had no understanding of how programming actually works. If everyone on the project has at least some competent level of programming knowledge, this sort of thing should happen a lot less.
Second, you become a much more valuable member of the team. The more programmers you have on a project, even less experienced ones, means the more people you can have adding features and fixing bugs. While I’m well aware that having more people on a coding project does not always mean it will go faster, this is really just another reason they should have some formal training: learning how to properly document their code so it’s readable to everyone else isn’t something you pick up on your own.
Ultimately, even if programming isn’t your thing, I still feel like it’s something very important to at least be exposed to. For example, I’m not very good with classic literature or biology, but I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t given it a shot. That, and I now have an appreciation and some minor understanding of those topics that let me communicate with people who do like those things. Really, why shouldn’t everyone learn a bit of coding?
I think Donahue’s essay puts it best when he says:
“Students should learn to program, but they should not let their inability to program prevent them from engaging with the computer sciences.”
Evan Donahue, A “Hello World” Apart
It’s not that you need to learn to program, but you should at least be familiar with the basics to be more helpful to your team, especially in a field that requires at least someone to know how to code. If it’s not your thing, that’s fine – you can still be a part of the field without any real coding ability.
So…my prior coding experience. I was introduced to coding for the first time in middle school, where I…made Pokemon ROM hacks. Yes, seriously. No, I wasn’t very good at it, I just learned a few basic aspects of the editor and basically just copy+pasted things everywhere. In 9th grade, I was introduced to Python from an elective at my high school, where I was taught to code more properly. Most of my coding during that time was casual, just throwing together simple programs to keep my basics intact. I’d pick up some Java and JavaScript starting in Senior year of high school from AP CS/CS201 and RPG Maker plugins respectively (yeah, you can laugh), and basic HTML and CSS from…Reddit. I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed about my background, but I think it’s worth mentioning that most of what I know is fairly informal and I’m not super great with proper formatting and documentation as a result.
One other thing I want to mention before I finish is a bit that caught me off guard in the Code Dog HTML basic segment. Having not done any HTML or CSS in at least two years, I decided the basics of those would be my best bet to refresh my memory. Near the end of the HTML section, we’re asked to put a fillable form into our document, and the example is…
<pre>
<p>Are you:</p>
<p><input type="radio" name="areyou" value="male"> Male</p>
<p><input type="radio" name="areyou" value="female"> Female</p>
<p><input type="radio" name="areyou" value="hermaphrodite"> An hermaphrodite</p>
<p><input type="radio" name="areyou" value="asexual" checked> Asexual</p>
</pre>Let’s just say I can tell this was written circa 2003. Please do not use the third word to refer to a human being, it’s incredibly insulting and the correct term is intersex. I’m not that “offended” per say, it’s just another unfortunate reminder that the world of coding isn’t exactly welcoming to everyone.
