Humanists, Code, and GitHub, oh my!

[chungkky]

Hi All,

Thought I'd try starting a discussion about teaching humanists "to code".

It's not the "two solitudes" but we need to be mindful that humanists work with different data and methods than scientists.

Note: I am aware I am generalizing when describing humanists. When I say "humanists" here, I'm mainly thinking of those who are novice computing/coding learners, not the techie humanists who write in plain text, use Git and GitHub, know what "CLI" stands for, or what R, LaTex, BibTex are (even if they don't use them). Even a lot of scientists are unfamiliar with Git, R, Python, SQL, etc or else why was SWC started in the first place and still flourishing now?

For example, if you are going to teach Git and GitHub to humanists, you might want to read Konrad M. Lawson's short essay "The Limitations of GitHub for Writers" first:
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/the-limitations-of-github-for-writers/48299. It was written in 2013 but most of the observations till hold. There's something called PenFlip https://www.penflip.com/ , built with GitLab, which tries to address some of the issues (notice it "hides" the need to make commit messages or know git syntax or even see the GitLab underneath it).

-- Kathy (in the humanities, who confesses she prefers writing emails rather than GitHub issues)

[joelostblom]

Penflip looks cool! I have been looking for something similar to gather feedback from non-git users when I write projects in markdown. Converting to other formats is ok, but not ideal, and I am a bit torn on more advanced platforms such as Authorea. Thanks for mentioning it!

[lwjohnst86]

Penflip looks really interesting and useful!

[chungkky]

Aside. I don't seem able to add a label to this discussion issue. Maybe I don't have the rights to do it? Can the powers that be (@lwjohnst86 @mbonsma others?) add a label to this thread? Thanks.