I think digital humanities students should learn to program. The foundation of our digital world is data. One can do research and create stuff without understanding the data. However, as a DH student, understanding how data works are vital for the profession.
Computers should not be black boxes but rather understood as engines for creating powerful and persuasive models of the world around us.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew. “Hello Worlds (why humanities students should learn to program)”
I‘ve been working at the GIS lab for almost a year. The most challenging part of most of my projects is finding the data I need and dealing with the problems with the app. I talked to my supervisor Wei-Hsin Fu, who is a GIS professional, to find ways for improvement. She advised me to take several classes or be a CS major. She said understanding how the program and data work would make my job more efficient and smooth. This summer, I self-learned crawling, which intensely involves website page sources and all the data I do not see in my daily computer use. I am now able to download batches of data. With the data, I can do data analysis and data visualization. With no coding knowledge, I would probably spend most of the time on data downloading instead of doing more creative work.
Before learning about CSS and HTML, page sources meant nothing to me. Now I can see the connection between the source code and the website. The opening of the black box makes everything clear and logical.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My first web page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>My first web page</h1>
<h2>What this is</h2>
<p>A simple page put together using HTML. <em>I said a simple page put together using HTML.</em> A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML. A simple page put together using HTML.</p>
<h2>Why this is</h2>
<ul>
<li>To learn HTML</li>
<li>
To show off
<ol>
<li>To my boss</li>
<li>To my friends</li>
<li>To my cat</li>
<li>To the little talking duck in my brain</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>Because I have fallen in love with my computer and want to give her some HTML loving.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Where to find the tutorial</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.htmldog.com"><img src="http://www.htmldog.com/badge1.gif" width="120" height="90" alt="HTML Dog"></a></p>
<h3>Some random table</h3>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Row 1, cell 1</td>
<td>Row 1, cell 2</td>
<td>Row 1, cell 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Row 2, cell 1</td>
<td>Row 2, cell 2</td>
<td>Row 2, cell 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Row 3, cell 1</td>
<td>Row 3, cell 2</td>
<td>Row 3, cell 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Row 4, cell 1</td>
<td>Row 4, cell 2</td>
<td>Row 4, cell 3</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h3>Some random form</h3>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> It looks the part, but won't do a damned thing.</p>
<form action="somescript.php" method="post">
<p>Name:</p>
<p><input name="name" value="Your name"></p>
<p>Comments: </p>
<p><textarea rows="10" cols="20" name="comments">Your comments</textarea></p>
<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>
<p><input type="submit"></p>
</form>
</body>
</html>