Executing Java in a browser? Novel Idea!* Computer Coding: Not for Geeks Only* * Bloomberg Business Week (01/26/12) Barrett W. Sheridan; Brendan Greeley*
People in traditionally non-technological careers increasingly are embracing software programming as a way to advance their careers. Programming is becoming "a much more fundamental piece of knowledge, similar to reading or writing," says Union Square Ventures' Andy Weissman. The number of college students pursuing computing science degrees rose 14 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to the Computing Research Association. Meanwhile, non-college students are accessing new resources, such as Codecademy, to develop their software development skills. Codecademy, which was founded in 2001 by former Columbia University students Zach Sims and Ryan Bubinski, offers free interactive tutorials that guide users as they write and test lines of JavaScript code directly in their browser windows. "We wanted to mirror the experience of what developers go through, learning by doing," Sims says. “There’s a cohort of hundreds of thousands of people who are all learning at the same time, and they’ll be conversational in how to build basic Web applications and sites at the end of the year.” Free online classes from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also are encouraging people to learn about computer science. "The introductory computing class has, on YouTube alone, over 2 million hits for the videos," notes Stanford professor Mehran Sahami. View Full Article<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/computer-coding-not-for-geeks-only-01262012.html>| * * -- Skip Cave Cave Consulting LLC Phone: 214-460-4861 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
