#codinglanguages

Unlock the code to web brilliance with our latest video! Discover the 5 Best Web Development Languages that power the digital world. From HTML to Python, explore the language of innovation.

Programming languages that are beginner-friendly, simple to learn, and fun to use should be used when teaching coding to children. Some of the top programming languages for kids are listed below:

Scratch: Kids can get started with programming with Scratch. By connecting vibrant code blocks, it uses a block-based visual programming language that enables kids to make interactive stories, animations, and games.

Python: Python is a powerful and frequently used programming language that is reasonably straightforward for children to learn. Python comes in kid-friendly iterations like "Turtle" graphics, which are excellent for teaching fundamentals.

In 2023, there are many coding languages that children are learning at present and making their future in that coding language, but today we will know about three kids coding languages which are very important to learn in 2023. 

Python: For new programmers of all ages, including children, Python has continuously been among the most highly recommended languages. Young students can easily understand the basics of programming thanks to its well-known for its straightforward and accessible syntax. 

Scratch: The visual programming language Scratch was created especially for beginners and young children. Instead of writing code, it lets users drag and connect code blocks to create interactive stories, games, and animations. Children may learn programming ideas with Scratch's graphical interface without having to worry about syntax mistakes.

http://martindouglas.info/2013/08/web-design-for-beginners/

Web design can be difficult for people when they’re first starting off. When I started my first question was, “What do I need to learn?” I saw things mentioned like C+, JavaScript, Java, PHP, HTML, CSS, Python and a whole other mess of acronyms and letters that I had no clue about. The problem was not knowing which one to learn for web design. Most of these can be used in web design in some way, but they’re not primarily used for web design itself.

In later posts I’ll go more into what programming or other languages can be used, or how they’re used in web design. I’ll also write up a few tutorials, or do some video tutorials for those looking to learn about web design. For this article though I’d like to just stick with the main languages that are used by most websites on the internet.

If you’re starting off in web design then the very first language you should look into learning is HTML. HTML is a simple language to learn. The majority of HTML entails putting tags around different parts of your text or document. For instance, when writing a paragraph in HTML you’d place a tag at the beginning and end of each paragraph. The tag before the paragraph would look be <p>. At the end of the paragraph you’d place an almost similar tag like this </p>. Notice the only difference in the end tag is the slash after the less than bracket which tells HTML that it’s the end tag. There are a few more rules for how HTML works, and a few exceptions, but the majority relies on opening and closing tags around elements of the page.

The second language you’ll want to learn is CSS which stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS basically deals with the layout of a website along with colors and fonts. With CSS you can change the width of a page, add extra space around paragraphs or pictures, change the font size or color, and even change the font itself. Its like someone writing up what they want on a plain sheet of paper (HTML) and then you moving stuff around, coloring, etc. to turn it into a creative design (CSS). Most books these days include lessons on both HTML and CSS.

You’d be able to design extremely great looking websites with only these two languages if you stopped learning here. The only thing you would possibly miss out on is the ability to design your own slide shows, maybe some nifty animations, or add working forms to your page among other things. Basically little things that might make the website pop a bit more, or might be fun, but nothing that would hurt you in the long run.

If you do want to start doing things with your web design to make your site more dynamic, such as using animations, putting up slide shows, making forms that will actually work, along with a host of other options then there are at least 3 other languages you’ll want to look at.

If you’re looking to be able to do some animations, have colors change when certain things are hovered over, do a photo slide show, pop ups, etc. then you’ll want to consider adding JavaScript to your web design plans. Even games can be designed using JavaScript. These are just a few of the things JavaScript can do. There’s a whole list more, but the above is what it is usually used for. If you’re going to look into learning JavaScript you’ll likely want a book that includes Ajax and jQuery. Most JavaScript books I’ve come across lately include a section on Ajax so that shouldn’t be hard to find. JQuery is actually a JavaScript library with prewritten JavaScript code to help make writing JavaScript easier and quicker. A solid understanding of JavaScript should be known first before looking into jQuery. If you can find a book that includes a section or two on jQuery then you’re ahead of the game. Finally, JavaScript should not be confused with Java. They’re both different languages. JavaScript runs in your browser, where Java is a compiled, server-side language.

The last two things you may want to look into are PHP and MySQL. Usually they’re used together. If you’ve ever used a WordPress or Joomla site, both are designed with PHP and MySQL (along with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/jQuery). You can have a whole web site built with HTML and CSS, and only have one PHP file to handle a form for sending information once the form is submitted. An example would be a PHP file to handle a “Contact Me” form. Most websites today use PHP because of how easily it can be used to add pages to a website. It also makes it easy for those who know nothing about web design to run a blog or web page. This is usually done along with using MySQL.

MySQL itself is a database. You can picture MySQL as looking like an Excel spreadsheet or a grid with rows and columns. It’s usually used to track and store data, or content on a website. If you’ve ever seen a WordPress website, the layout and what visitors see is HTML and CSS. The files though contain PHP code. As you enter or write in the forms on the website, it sends the information to the file containing PHP and the PHP then sends the data to the MySQL database. It may store a name in one column, maybe a comment or article you’ve written in another column, and so on and so on in an organized fashion. PHP in this case merely works with MySQL to get the information from each column in the MySQL database and sends it back to the user. The PHP is wrapped around the HTML and CSS when displayed to the user.

In critique of my blog post last week regarding my almost blind excitement for the potential of Digital History to democratize information, I have come across several articles and books in the field of Critical Code Studies that endeavor to look beyond simply what code does and more deeply at how the structure of code and computing languages have been reinforced by AND have reinforce the socio-cultural milieu since the second half of the 20th century.

I will specifically explore the article by Tara McPherson, “Why are the Digital Humanities so White? Or Thinking the Histories of Race and Computation.” McPherson examines how computer codes, languages, and operating systems created in the post WWII/Cold War Era and parallel to the Civil Rights Movement have developed in response to these social factors. McPherson suggests that languages like C++ and Operating systems such as UNIX may have been organized to further isolate race as well as “cordon off race and contain it.” (Debates in the digital humanities 143)

In essence, McPherson states that “if digital computing underwrites today’s information economy and is the central technology of post-World War II America, these technologized ways of seeing and knowing took shape in a world also struggling with shifting knowledges about and representations of race” (Debates,143)

The 1960s Civil Rights Movement can be seen as an historical event that underwrote more covert forms of racism in the second half of the 20th century. Those who pushed for socio-political change such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, and the LGBT community saw shifts in their status as human beings and as citizens of the United States of America. However, it may also have established a shift towards more covert policies of sexism, racism, and homophobia encoded not only in our computational systems, but also in various other physical manifestations.

Consider the policy of urban renewal and highway construction in the Mid-20th. under the guise of urban revitalization, the United States Government underwrote policies of slum clearance, redlining, and highway construction. In tandem, these policies essentially razed homes in predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods to make room for the construction of highway systems that bisected their communities. Once highway systems were in place, the poor and minorities in search of homes were directed by realtors to a specific side of the highway. The highways became physical barriers that separated blacks from whites and poor from affluent. This spatial modularity is evident in the rise of black ghettoes in the 1970s and 1980s.

Spatial and technological modularity can be understood as such: discrete nodes that do not intersect. Thus, humans, in regards to ghettoization and ideas about humans in regards to the rise of modularity in computing culture, do not interact. Their is a lapse in integration and understanding. McPherson calls this “lenticular logics” an analogy to “the rigid coating on 3-D postcards…a structural device that makes simultaneously viewing of the various images on the card nearly impossible.” (Debates, 144)

Why is this so important? Because modularity does not favor context. How can we understand the problem in regards to computing culture? Computing languages are made up of strands of code that mean something in our culture, it can be related to the Sassurian concept of the signified and the signifier, I.e. humans suggest the meaning for an abstract symbol of something real. Because humans create meaning, racism, sexism, and homophobia have the potential to be written into code. But, even more than that, computing systems are becoming increasingly MORE module for ease of use. Early operating systems like UNIX that are long strands of code encrypted onto software and in some ways more transparent are giving way to web-based applications and cloud computing. Modules are independent of information from other modules, for example apps do not “talk” to other apps. Therefore, the possibility of code embedded with racial or sexist undertones or meaning, has the potential to slip into a module that is discrete and non-contextualized. For someone using the module, like an app, systems of meaning in regards to code are nearly invisible, but that does not mean they are not there.

McPherson suggests that the increasing move towards modularity in computing parallels the rise of modularity in other sections of society including the university. Increasingly, the university system created departments to “accommodate” a more pluralistic point of view in the 1970s. Yet, it is suggested that departments act as silos or nodes, where professors and students of one discipline rarely speak with those of others. professionalism has undermined communication.

As a member of the intradepartmental MGAA, I can say that this is absolutely true. It is very difficult to foster communication even with a common self interest such as workers’ rights. This is equally clear in regards to the lack of Digital courses offered to humanities students. There are programs on UWM campus that have the potential to foster DH; yet, those courses not listed under one’s program and course catalog are all but invisible.