explaingit

bloomberggraphics/whatiscode

Analysis updated 2026-07-03

3,734JavaScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

The source code for Paul Ford's landmark 2015 Bloomberg Businessweek article explaining what software and programming culture are, published as an open repository so readers can flag errors.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((whatiscode))
    What it is
      Bloomberg article
      Paul Ford 2015
      Long-form journalism
    Content
      What is software
      Programming culture
      For general readers
    Licensing
      JS code Apache 2
      Article text CC BY-NC-ND
      Third-party libs vary
    Contributions
      Text error fixes
      Pull requests
      Issue labels
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Read or share Paul Ford's acclaimed long-form article explaining programming to non-technical people.

USE CASE 2

Submit a correction or improvement to the article text by opening a GitHub issue or pull request.

USE CASE 3

Reference the project as an example of publishing journalism as open-source to accept community corrections.

What is it built with?

JavaScriptHTML

How does it compare?

bloomberggraphics/whatiscodehappypoulp/redux-tutorialforwardemail/email-templates
Stars3,7343,7343,733
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyeasyeasymoderate
Complexity1/52/52/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
The JavaScript is Apache 2 (use freely), the article text is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, you can share it with credit but not commercially or with modifications.

In plain English

This repository holds the source code for "What Is Code?", a long-form article written by Paul Ford and published in Bloomberg Businessweek on June 11, 2015. The piece is a lengthy examination of software and programming culture aimed at general readers. The repository is primarily a JavaScript project containing the article as a web page, stored in an index.html file. The README is brief and focuses mainly on licensing and contribution logistics. Bloomberg Finance LP owns the JavaScript code, which is released under the Apache 2 license. The article text itself is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license, meaning you can share it with proper credit but cannot use it commercially or create derivative works. Third-party JavaScript libraries included in the project carry their own respective licenses. If you find errors in the article text or want to suggest corrections, the repository accepts pull requests and issue reports. Issues tagged with the "text" label are reviewed by an editor, though the team makes no guarantees about response time. Merged changes may take a day or so to appear on the live site, particularly on weekends. The README does not describe the technical architecture of the project or provide instructions for running the code locally. Based on what is documented here, this is a public home for a well-known piece of long-form journalism about software, made open so readers can flag errors and contributors can improve the text over time.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I want to understand what the 'What Is Code?' article covers. Summarize the main topics it explains and who it is written for.
Prompt 2
How can I contribute a text correction to the whatiscode repo? Walk me through opening an issue with the 'text' label.
Prompt 3
What does the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license on the article text allow me to do if I want to translate or quote it?

Frequently asked questions

What is whatiscode?

The source code for Paul Ford's landmark 2015 Bloomberg Businessweek article explaining what software and programming culture are, published as an open repository so readers can flag errors.

What language is whatiscode written in?

Mainly JavaScript. The stack also includes JavaScript, HTML.

What license does whatiscode use?

The JavaScript is Apache 2 (use freely), the article text is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, you can share it with credit but not commercially or with modifications.

How hard is whatiscode to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is whatiscode for?

Mainly general.

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