82-Year-Old Pope Francis Is 'First Pope To Write a Line of Code' (geekwire.com)

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: After seeing to it that UK Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all received (widely-publicized) coding lessons, Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi noted in late 2016 that he was "still working on Pope Francis." GeekWire reports that Partovi was able to cross that one off his bucket list Thursday, as he helped Pope Francis become 'the first Pope to write a line of code' at a 'Programming for Peace' event organized by the Pope's foundation, Scholas Occurrentes, in Vatican City (not ready for Twitch.TV video).

"In the 21st century, computer science is a fundamental subject that all students should learn," said Partovi, whose tech-bankrolled nonprofit has entered a partnership with Scholas to introduce children to computer science. "Schools should teach computer science to prepare students for the future, empower children with creativity and teach how to harness technology and creativity." The Pontiff's programming lesson comes a month after Partovi's next-door neighbor, Microsoft President and Code.org Board member Brad Smith, had a sit-down with the Pope to discuss the ethical use of AI and ways to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor nations.

Comments

bugfree code forever!

[Anonymous Coward]

As the pope is infallible, therefore all of his code is perfect.
Please let him write security-related stuff and new OSes, and the happy days arrive, and stays with us, forever and ever.

What is it with the bullshit?

[gweihir]

This is about having them put on a band-aid and claiming that was the action of a surgeon. Any educated person can write simple code. Does not mean anything.

Re:What is it with the bullshit?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it means yet another high-profile celebrity learned to regurgitate simple code that is not even complicated enough to have bugs. Professional scientists often code, and at a much higher level, but still benefit greatly from having an actual coder do it.

This whole "make everybody a coder" bullshit is just a stunt by the tech industry to make coders cheaper. It's not like they care about actual coder quality anyway. The more the merrier.

Re:What is it with the bullshit?

[Anonymous Coward]

This whole "make everybody a coder" bullshit is just a stunt by the tech industry to make coders cheaper. It's not like they care about actual coder quality anyway. The more the merrier.

You could very well be right, but consider another perspective. Maybe it is more "make it less mysterious" so people are less likely to be fooled. For example, I watch videos on how stuff is made, not because I want to manufacture stuff, but to remove the mystery. Or maybe I read a book on playing the guitar so I can have a better appreciation for someone who practiced enough to play well.

Think about HR hiring a software developer. Do you want them to pick the first person who spits up the most buzzwords or to be able to see through the jargon and pick a good candidate?

But yes, the Programmer Pope sure does sound like a PR stunt.

Re:Latin

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Yes, Latin. The Church has been programming people with it for two millennia.

Do you want ...

[PPH]

... another schism in the church? Because this is how you get one.

Re:no one writes code

[kenh]

During summer holidays, I used to write the code during the afternoon/evening, assemble it by hand during the night, and type it in a hex editor in the morning.

Sounds delightful, I assume you vacationed alone?

Re: On The Pope's Brain

[youngone]

5/10
It's an OK troll, not the worst, but replies too much on the "nerd" insult which is so 1990's.
I liked the Cathar reference, lots of people would have had to look that up. Spoiled by the "How would you like a nice cup of.." trope, which once again has not aged well.
Need to try harder.