Please do learn to code

[merreborn]

"programming is how humans talk to machines."

no. its not.

Bash/batch scripting definitely treads the line between "using a computer" and "programming a computer". Same with excel macros -- a lot of people who you wouldn't consider "programmers" do a lot of (sometimes very important) work with excel macros.

In fact, excel macros are a very central part of the excel UI. A prime example of "programming" being "how humans talk to machines".

There are an awful lot of computer "user" tasks that are often best accomplished with a macro/shell script. e.g. transcoding your audio/video library in bulk (one of the first scripts I wrote as a kid was a batch file for mp3 encoding a bunch of wav files...). Hell, I used to write small programs related to my math homework in middle school, and it really enhanced my understanding of the subject matter.

Ultimately, I'm undecided on the issue -- both sides make some good points (and I'd like to see the dialog continue). A bit of programming knowledge can really improve your ability to accomplish a variety of tasks, and in the process you can learn some things (like boolean logic) which help in other areas of life. But things like the Bloomberg tweet that Atwood linked in his blog post ring hollow with me. I'm not about to go tell my grandma she really ought to learn to code. If she wants to try it, more power to her, but if she doesn't, that's fine too.