I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, and have tended to associate with like-minded people for most of high school and college.
Little did I realize that this was a popular field to enter, for my best friend is a writer as well. However, he doesn’t write using vocabulary like I do; he writes code. Today, I have a phone in my pocket that is 100,000 times faster than the first computer (according to Phone Arena), so it makes perfect sense that knowing code has become a necessary skill to encompass in today’s world.
Computer programming is a course that will soon be offered at every high school. We’ve all heard the trend, but the question still looms: what exactly is it? To put simply, coding is the process of creating computer software, apps and websites through the use of special computer language.
The computer only understands a language known as binary code, which is most commonly viewed as a series of ‘1’s and ‘0’s. This means that there needs to be a language used that humans can understand, so programming is introduced. There are thousands of coding languages available to learn, but some are more complicated than others.
Code Conquest claims that “each program used to code has its own language. A program is simply a text file, written in a certain coding language. The code inside a program file is called the source code. Every coding language has its own file extension for identifying code files written in that language. For example, Python’s is ‘.py’.”
Learning to code is a lot like studying a new language. There are a series of websites, such as Code Academy that allow you to learn for free, simply by completing a few lessons each day. The fact of the matter is that the educational system hasn’t changed much since the late 1900’s. It is considered old-school, and many coding websites believe that there needs to be something done about this. There are a variety of new skills that should be taught that are not being addressed with the current public school system. Computers are imperative to today’s life, so it makes common sense that we learn the way they operate.
“Aside from writing code for new programs, computer programmers also repair, modify, expand, and update older, already written programs,” says WorldWideLearn.com. “They are then responsible for making sure other users know of the changes in the programming. They communicate these changes by inserting comments in the code.”
It’s obvious that there are numerous occupations available to those who know how to code. It not only teaches computer literacy, but also communication skills, problem-solving, and a high level of organization.
Programming may not be for everyone, but it’s a quickly emerging field that is taking the world by storm. Since the conglomeration between KSU and SPSU, there are now over thirty-four new programs available to those who are interested in technology, so take your pick!
