# BloombergGraphics/whatiscode

Paul Ford’s “What Is Code?”

Repository: https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/whatiscode
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/whatiscode
Homepage: http://www.bloomberg.com/whatiscode
Language: JavaScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-06-12T15:13:23+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4104, "days_push": 812, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3739, forks 257 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:15.893802+00:00)

## What it is
The source repository for Paul Ford's 'What Is Code?', a long-form interactive essay published by Bloomberg Businessweek in June 2015 explaining what software and programming are. It contains the article text (index.html) and the JavaScript powering the interactive web presentation.

## Use cases
- read a beginner-friendly explanation of what programming is
- understand how computers and software work without a technical background
- find a long-form introduction to coding for non-programmers
- study how an interactive long-form web article is built
- suggest corrections to the essay's text via pull requests

## When to choose
- you want an accessible, journalistic introduction to software and programming
- you are curious how interactive editorial web content is implemented

## When to avoid
- you need a practical tool, library, or framework for building software
- you want up-to-date technical tutorials, since the essay dates from 2015

## Facets
- artifact type: learning-resource
- maturity: maintenance
- function: documentation, developer-tools
- domain: education, programming-languages, developer-tools, tutorials
- platform: browser, cross-platform
- tags: article, essay, journalism, interactive-content, bloomberg-businessweek, paul-ford, web

## Member repositories
- BloombergGraphics/whatiscode (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:15.893802+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:29:07.903140+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/BloombergGraphics/whatiscode (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:15.893802+00:00, sha ebfe14966b2f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.