To Code or Not to Code!

I have really enjoyed coding so far. I am very new to it. It is really satisfying to control every element of the layout/design of a page. It is also somewhat overwhelming to have to consider the myriad elements which contribute to the appearance of a website.

I do not think humanities must learn to code, I of course think everyone should learn to code.  

I believe that, increasingly, an appreciation of how complex ideas can be imagined and expressed as a set of formal procedures — rules, models, algorithms — in the virtual space of a computer will be an essential element of a humanities education.

“Hello Worlds (Why Humanities Students Should Learn to Program).” Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, 26 May 2010, mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/hello-worlds/.

I agree with Kirschenbaum’s sentiments here. The language with which we communicate increasingly is digital. If you want to make academia accessible, it must be digital. The internet is more accessible than a library, because you can carry it around in your pocket. It doesn’t require the dewey decimal system to understand. Still, many academic resources remain far too difficult to find online, locked behind JSTOR or other databases which demand a subscription. Digital literacy can solve some accessibility issues, but can’t make resources free.

However, I have never taken a Computer Science class before. Many of my friends are CS majors, and I have learned through them that CS really is an art form more than a science. I hope to take a CS class in the future!

Here is an example of code I made:

I read another blog post on whether it is even possible for humanities students to learn how to code. From the apparent frequency of this query, it seems that one of the greatest barriers to humanities students learning to code is the belief that they are not even capable of coding. This blog post talked about five professionals with humanities backgrounds and how they became interested in coding. One coder, Laura, said, “A lot of people don’t see the correlation between English and coding, but code is just another language. The parallel between sentence structure could be loosely correlated with lines of code.” I found this really compelling, and has inspired me to learn more about coding. I am now curious about the possibilities of literature through code! (https://www.coursereport.com/blog/oh-the-humanities-reflections-on-learning-to-code-with-a-humanities-background)