Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 275.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 2003 05:59:40 +0100
From: lhomich <lhomich@ualberta.ca>
Subject: RE: 17.271 dance steps to coding
Dear Colleagues:
I've come to humanities computing from the opposite direction to (what I
imagine ) the approach that most of my Humanist colleagues have taken. I
graduated with a degree in computer science in 1979 (I wrote a compiler on
punch cards), then spent the following twenty years as a computer
programmer, database administrator, and system designer. I began taking
English courses several years ago and three years ago I became a full time
student. I am now doing a Master's degree in Humanities Computing with
English as my home department. I'm still learning computer languages: I
started teaching myself Java this year, and I'm digging into XML and XSLT
as well.
During my career, I learned several languages. There were some points where
time constraints restricted my learning to the point of "do this to make
that happen"; I didn't have time to learn the background of why, when x is
coded, then y happens. This has always made me uncomfortable; I still want
to look under the hood and see what's there. Even if I don't understand
exactly how the engine works, having a general idea helps me to situate myself.
I've noticed that sometimes knowledge of one discipline tends to become the
hammer that turns all problems into nails. I myself am guilty of cussing at
those who don't behave according to the rules and algorithms that I think
people should behave by. The PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and
Chair) acronym and attitude is a good example, as are the many Procrustean
interfaces one encounters in dealing with computer systems. Part of the
reason that I began to study English is its attention to the person and to
the facets of human experience that are not amenable to algorithmic
approaches. I'm encouraged by the many Human Factors and HCI programs now
available, but to tell the truth, when I was a student the first time, back
in the late '70s, I don't know if they would have interested me. Life
experience has taught me much that autodidacticism simply cannot. Computer
languages can be self-taught, but even some things as supposedly
autodidactic as learning to code benefit a great deal from the experiences
of others. The "interdisciplinary dialogue upon which so much of humanities
computing depends" is the "show-and-tell modes of knowledge acquisition."
Eric Homich
M.A. Student
Humanties Computing / English
University of Alberta
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