Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2015-06-13
Study how Bloomberg structured a long-form article as an interactive web page instead of a static blog post.
Adapt the animation and layout techniques to build your own educational explainer content.
Learn how to combine long-form writing with JavaScript interactivity to keep readers engaged.
Reuse the Apache-licensed JavaScript code as a starting point for an interactive article.
| bitinn/whatiscode | 100/rutgers-pbl-dining-2015 | a15n/a15n_old | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | HTML | HTML | HTML |
| Last pushed | 2015-06-13 | 2015-12-01 | 2016-06-18 |
| Maintenance | Dormant | Dormant | Dormant |
| Setup difficulty | easy | easy | easy |
| Complexity | 2/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| Audience | writer | general | general |
Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.
Just an HTML file with JavaScript and third-party libraries, open it in a browser to view.
This repository holds the source code and content for an interactive article published by Bloomberg called "What Is Code?" It's essentially a digital magazine piece designed to explain programming concepts to people who aren't software developers. The article itself is a long-form, richly formatted piece of writing that lives in an HTML file. Rather than being a plain text document, it's built as a web page with interactive elements, styled layouts, and custom JavaScript to make the reading experience more engaging. Think of it like an animated, clickable educational article rather than a static PDF. The repo contains several pieces: the main article text (which Bloomberg shares under a Creative Commons license so people can read and share it), the JavaScript code that makes interactive parts work (which Bloomberg shares more openly under Apache license), and various third-party JavaScript libraries that handle things like animations or layout on the web page. Each piece has its own licensing rules depending on who owns it. This would be useful for anyone building educational or explanatory web content. If you're a journalist or communicator who wants to teach a complex topic online, you could look at how this project structures long-form articles as interactive web pages rather than traditional blog posts or PDFs. It's a good example of how to combine readable writing with technical interactivity to keep an audience engaged while learning something new. The repository is essentially showing "here's how we made our explainer article work" so others can learn from or adapt the approach.
The source code for Bloomberg's interactive "What Is Code?" article, showing how to build a richly formatted, animated web page that explains programming to non-developers.
Mainly HTML. The stack also includes HTML, JavaScript.
Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2015-06-13).
The article text is shared under Creative Commons for reading and sharing, the JavaScript code is shared under the more permissive Apache license.
Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.
Mainly writer.
This repo across BitVibe Labs
Verify against the repo before relying on details.