Code Literacy: Why Coding Became Important

Coding and programming are all around us and will only get more all-pervasive in the future.

For this reason, many are making the argument that learning to code, or at least have a basic understanding of it, should become a common part of a child’s education.

Here we explore why coding is important, what it is, and where you can learn it for yourself. 

Why is coding literacy important?

Coding and coding literacy can be argued to be one of the most important skills for current and future generations to learn. Many have argued that it should form part of a national curriculum on par with a native language, the sciences, and math.

We are surrounded with electronic devices each running uncountable numbers of software that run on code of some kind. Our modern world is also heavily reliant on the internet with workforces being required to be more and more computer literate with each passing year.

It is, therefore, as important to making a living in the modern world as having a good grasp of grammar, spelling, and numeracy.

But as software becomes ever more sophisticated, the general public is being further and further detached from how they actually work. While they are exhaustively designed and tested to be as intuitive to use as possible, how they work is fast becoming something of a kind of magic for all but a select few. 

“When [someone] is not code-literate, [they] must accept the devices and software [they] use with whatever limitations and agendas their creators have built into them. How many times have you altered the content of a lesson or a presentation because you couldn’t figure out how to make the technology work the way you wanted?”

While this might not bother you on the surface, it could have serious implications in the future. Most users are simply trusting the developers that they have only the best intentions when they use their products.

For this reason, many educators are now pushing for making at least basic coding literacy a requirement for all students.

“[Users] are spending an increasing amount of their time in digital environments where the rules have been written by others. Just being familiar with how code works would help them navigate this terrain, understand its limitations and determine whether those limits are there because the technology demands it — or simply because some company wants it that way. Code literate kids stop accepting the applications and websites they use at face value, and begin to engage critically and purposefully with them instead.”

What is the difference between coding and programming?

The vast majority of people who hear these terms will often believe they are actually synonyms for one another. In fact, many professionals working in the industry will often use them interchangeably.

In fact, we have done the same in this article. 

But there are, in fact, subtle, yet important, differences between them. You will regularly find articles and forums that attempt to discuss the differences with conclusions leaving the distinction a little blurry.

So we thought we’d throw our hat into the ring and attempt to disentangle the two terms.

Coding vs programming is a debate that has become relevant in the software development community fairly recently. Read this article to find out why they are different and why it is important to know the distinction.

With the recent rise in computer science classes across all grades, we’re starting to grow our personal vocabularies in ways that make the average person uncomfortable.

To complicate matters, many of these “new” words seem to have such intimidating histories that we don’t take the time to properly understand their usage — instead we repeat them blindly, whether we know what they really mean or not.

One such example of complex wordsmithing is the synonymous use of the terms “coding” and “programming”.See Also: What is Coding?

“Coding” and “Programming” are the two most important approaches in Software Development Industries. Coding is basically the process of creating codes from one language to another one. It can also be called as a subset of Programming since it actually implements the initial steps of Programming. It involves writing codes in different languages as instructed. Programming is the process of developing an executable machine level program that can be implemented without any error. It is the process of formally writing codes so that the human inputs and corresponding machine outputs remain in sync.

The Difference between Coding and Programming are explained in the below-mentioned points:

Coding is the process of translating and writing codes from one language to another whereas Programming is the process of building an executable program that can be used to carry out proper machine level outputs.

Coding only deals with the codes and so it is less intimidating and less intensive. On the other hand, Programming deals with a program to control and interact with the machine to produce proper results.

Coders are mainly used to translate the requirements and their logic into a language that machines can understand whereas Programming deals with much more than that. It’s not only used to analyze and develop the codes but also engage all the different artifacts to make the system perform in a proper way.

Coding is the initial step of developing any software and thus it is much easier and simpler to analyze and understand than Programming. Programming deals with different types of complex scenarios and programs to ensure the proper implementation of the product.

Coders only translate the requirement logics into a machine-understandable code without worrying about the details. But on the other hand, Programmers use to analyze and conceptualize different aspects of any program and also solutions to any problems that may or may not occur due to the process. It works on a much broader aspect than coders.

To become a programmer, different aspects of any approach needs to be considered. In the case of coding, one just has to deal with the codes and concerned requirements. So, complex programming requires a much more in-depth understanding of the language.

Coding can be defined as a part of the Programming approach whereas Programming can be defined as a superset of Coding. It deals with different aspects of any programming base including the coding approach.

The machine can’t interact with human communications and it only understands the machine code which is the binary language. So, the main work of a coder is to translate the requirements into machine understandable language.

Creating code is the beginning steps and then programming is used to analyze and implement the same and produce the proper machine level output. It also involves all the critical parameters from debugging and compiling to testing and implementation.

Coders need to have a thorough understanding of the project working language. However, they mainly code as per the project needs and instructed information. This is the initial step of developing a software product. Programmers use to analyze and conceptualize the different aspects of communication and produce the correct machine outputs. It normally takes much more time for an individual to become a programmer than a coder.

People often confuse coding and programming and use these two terms interchangeably. Let’s just get this out of the way now — they’re not the same thing, and in fact, they are quite different.