Although I previously chose the opposite, I now believe all humanities students should learn the basics of cs. With the rapid development of technology, it isn’t far-fetched to say technology will encompass our life in the future. Computer science, in hand with the humanities, can be used in creative projects. As Kirschenbaum puts it:
Computers should not be black boxes but rather understood as engines for creating powerful and persuasive models of the world around us
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
I find that in creating new projects, especially within the digital humanities world, it is best to understand the basics of your colleagues’ field of study to facilitate productive communication and planning. Besides, as a carleton student, I believe students should be given a well rounded education.
There is definitely a bit of a learning curve for me when it comes to coding in HTML and CSS. When I first started practicing with HTML, it felt as though this language was convoluted and not as intuitive as other programming languages I’ve tried. Wrapping every line felt unnecessary and I couldn’t quite figure out what things to include within what tags. To put it simply: I was frustrated. Though, starting out was truly the only difficult part. As I continued through the tutorials, I quickly picked up the basics of the languages. HTML, for me, was easier to follow than CSS, most likely because I insisted on applying CSS in an internal style. I will say, in python there is a style guide to follow (PEP8) in order to keep your code clean and readable. For HTML and CSS, I am unsure if there is a PEP8 equivalent so it is very likely my code is messier than I realized. Please keep this in mind as you view my new code.
I have past experience with computer science through python, so coding isn’t exactly new to me. I find python to be a bit easier to follow than what HTML and CSS are; though it is possible this is simply because I’ve spent more time with python than other languages. I don’t believe python and HTML or CSS are similar in any respect as these languages are used for different things, but python is still my favorite. This doesn’t negate the fact that using HTML and CSS so far has been an interesting experience.
My code
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>my first web page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This is my first web page</p>
<p>How <em>exciting</em></p>
<p>Cats are the <strong>forefront</strong> of my life as a carleton student</p>
<p>What type of cat do you like?</p>
<ul>
<li>tabby cat</li>
<li>black cat</li>
<li>calico cat</li>
<li>shorthair cat</li>
</ul>
<style>
p {
color: red;
}
a {
color: blue;
}
body{
font-size: 14px;
color: white;
background-color: #009;
}
</body>
</html>1 thought on “Lab 2”
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I love your cat code! Though personally I am more of a dog person than a cat person, cats still have a special place in my heart. I also 100% agree with your argument- its really important to have a least a bit of understanding of the other field you’re collaborating with, or else working together is going to be a series of talking then stopping to explain- not super efficient. I also wonder if as Carleton students we are more bias towards learning multiple skills because we go to a school that values a well rounded education.