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Introduction
In today’s lesson we will look at:
• what programming is
• what we’ll be doing on the course
• installing the software you need
• writing your first program
What is Programming?
• Put very simply, programming is telling the
computer what to do!
• “Program” is another name for applications,
software, “apps”, utilities, etc. – things that run on
your computer
• Almost every program that you use will have
been “written” by a person – or more likely a
team of people.
• Programs are written using a “programming
language”
What is a Programming Language?
• When you write a program, you use a special set
of words as the instructions – these are called
commands or keywords – and these make up
the programming language.
• Examples of programming languages include
BASIC, C and C++, Java, Python, JavaScript,
Pascal, PHP, Ruby, Perl – there are loads!
• Luckily they are quite similar in that they mostly
use the same ideas, and often a lot of the
commands are the same, so it’s fairly easy to
swap from one to another.
Which is Best?
• Actually, learning to program isn’t just about
learning the language.
• All languages include things like:
– Variables
– Decisions
– Repetition
– Events
• The real skill is being able to take an idea for a
program and to use these things to create it
What Will We Use?
• After months of research, I’ve decided on BASIC
• BASIC isn’t basic – it’s an acronym and stands for
Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
• We will start with Just BASIC and move on to
Visual Basic.
• Visual Basic is used by professional programmers
to create large Windows applications
• Both are free to download, there will be links in the
assignments.
BASIC
• It’s easy to swap from one to the other – you can
even copy and paste some things
Installing the Software
• Just BASIC is a small download, and it can be
installed from http://justbasic.com/download.html
• There is a free version of Visual Basic called Visual
Basic Express, which is fine for home use
• The full version of Visual Basic can de downloaded
from Dreamspark if you have an account (check
with your school)
• Visual Basic is a large download, and takes up a lot
of resources on your computer, so I recommend
that you wait until you’re sure you want it!
Can We Start Now?
• OK!
• Looking at a very simple level, programs
take an input, process it, and produce
an output, so we’ll look at those key
steps first.
• The command for output in Just BASIC is
PRINT
• The keyword for input is INPUT
PRINTing
• You can print a number: PRINT 123
• You can print text: PRINT “Hello”
• You can print the result of a calculation:
PRINT 4*2
• You can join words together: PRINT
“Hello ” + “Everyone”
• The next PRINT command prints on the
next line unless you use a semi-colon (;)
INPUT
• When you ask a user for input, you need:
– A question, or prompt, to tell them
what you want
– A variable to store the response
• e.g. INPUT “What is your name?”; n$
• We will look at variables in more detail
next week, so don’t worry about this
too much for now.