Is Coding the new Typing?

http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2012/05/computer-programming-for-all-a-new-standard-of-literacy.php
http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/05/11/9-mostly-free-resources-that-will-help-you-learn-how-to-code/
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/006211.php


Back when I was a young whippersnapper, my mother told me "Learn to type. It's something you can always fall back on." There were some sexist assumptions behind that, of course. In part, it meant "If you get married to a jerk who leaves you high and dry with no money, you can work as a secretary." But then again, my generation didn't really expect women to get and/or keep professional jobs. 


And I have worked my fair share of secretarial jobs... oops, now it's "administrative assistant" (although that term used to mean something more high-falutin' than it does these days. Title inflation strikes again.)


Anyway: I have been seeing references out of the corner of my eye to coding. Writing computer code. Making computers do things you want them to, or that other people want them to do and hire you to get them to do. It is not (I freely admit) something I'm terribly familiar with.


However, I have seen it being touted as the same kind of fallback employment skill that typing used to be. I do know from reading employment blogs that there is a boom in jobs calling for tech skills--and not just soft skills (human relationships and writing), but rather hard skills (writing programs, although not necessarily inventing them).


Hence the trio of links above. The first is more about "why look into coding." The second and third are about "how and where to find resources."