I can still remember when I first tool Algebra II. This was a class where it seemed like every week we were learning a new formula or law or procedure, and it was so easy to confuse the law of sines with the law of cosines or forget a step in a procedure and leave yourself at the mercy of the teacher as to how much credit you will receive. I remember making so many mistakes on the homework assignments and being frustrated with the whole process. At the same time, I had just convinced my mother to buy me a TI-81 calculator like all the other kids in my class. THe big thing then was using calculators to play games, but when I learned that I could make the calculator do these complicated procedures for me, it changed my life.
Maybe your motivations for wanting to program are different from mine. Maybe you’ve realized the extra dimension that a programming language will give to an accountant’s resume or a lawyer’s resume. Maybe you have an idea that you think is too good to share so you’d rather work on it yourself. Or maybe you just want to keep busy at work instead of looking at youtube and facebook all day at work. Whatever your reason, hopefully this writeup can help.
One of the first questions you need to answer is what language you want to learn. Different languages have different properties, so you want to know what you’re getting into. For example, if you plan to write programs to be part of a web page, C++ is probably not a good option because its programs are executable files which cannot be put into a web page. If you were to ask my opinion on a first language to learn in this day and age, I’d recommend JavaScript for a few reasons:
- Its a simple language (when compared to C++ or Java for example), but it can still do some powerful things.
- Its syntax (the rules of the language) is very similar to Java and C++, so those languages can become next steps after gaining an understanding of JavaScript. It also connects to other languages like Ajax and PHP, which can also become next steps.
- It is can be interpreted by almost any browser. One of the biggest drawbacks to people learning programming or a programming language is the first step of finding the compiler/interpreter. With JavaScript all you need is the browser you’re currently using.
Other languages have their own benefits, so don’t get too caught up if you’d rather start with a language other than JavaScript. I don’t mean to discourage any options.
My plan over the next few weeks is to go over a few concepts of programming in some popular languages.
The first program one generally writes in a new language is called the “Hello, world!” program. If you think of this programming language as a new part of you, then the “Hello, world!” program is introducing this new part of you to the world. From a programmers prospective, we use it to understand the basic structure of a program in this new language – ala it introduces the programming language to us.
There are certain things to try to take notice of in a “Hello, world!” program:
- The case of the alphabetic characters. One of the biggest programming errors for beginners is understanding case sensitivity – i.e. that ‘int’ and ‘Int’ can be interpreted totally differently.
- The location of non-alphanumeric characters. Many languages use parenthesis, semicolons, brackets, etc., and gaining an understanding of how to use these symbols is important.
- How to output text. By definition, this program outputs “Hello, world!”, so understanding how this is done is important.
- What does each line do? These programs are generally pretty short, so we should gain some understanding of the important parts of a program in this new language.
Having stated that, lets introduce a few “Hello, world!” programs in different languages.
JavaScript
<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write("<p>Hello, world!</p>");
</script>
</body>
</html>
JavaScript programs are embedded inside an HTML web page. This is why the first two lines of the JavaScript look like an HTML file – because thats exactly what it is. The third line tells the browser to expect JavaScript code for the next few lines (until the ‘</script>’ tag). The function document.write() writes text to the web page. In this case, that text is “Hello, world!”. Notice that the fourth line ends in a ‘;’. Just like we use a period to end sentences in English, we need a way to end statements in JavaScript. The ‘;’ character does this. We then close the script with ‘</script>’ tag. Then we use the html again to reach the end of the file.
I encourage users to try this program out. To do so, copy the above JavaScript and paste it in a text editor and save it as “hello.htm”. Then open the file with Internet Explorer (my favorite browser for editing JavaScript), Chrome, Firefox, or whatever web browser you currently use. You should see something similar to:
C++
#include <iostream.h>
void main()
{
cout << "Hello, world!";
return;
}Our C++ program starts with an ‘#include’ statement. This tells the compiler that our program will need resources that are included in another file (in this case, ‘iostream.h’ – we use this file for basic input and output). Notice that the ‘iostream.h’ file is included inside ‘<>’ brackets. Take note of that now. After that, we see the main function. Every C++ program must have a main function. This is where the program begins. Notice the statement ‘void’ in front of the word ‘main’. This says that the ‘return’ statement will not have a value after it (we could have instead said ‘int main()’, in which case we would need to have put ‘return 0;’). Notice next the (). This tells the compiler that main is a function (of no arguments). Then there is a ‘{‘ which shows that we are starting the main function. To output the “Hello, world!” statement, we use the statement ‘cout’ followed by ‘ << ‘. This is standard output syntax. Notice again that the statement is followed by a ‘;’. Like JavaScript, every statement in C++ must be followed by a ‘;’. Finally, the program closes with a ‘}’ closing the earlier ‘{‘.
If you would like to compile this C++ program, you’ll need a C++ compiler. Downloading a C++ compiler depends a lot on your operating system and your preferences. You can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers to select a proper compiler.
Java
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void main(String [] args)
{
System.out.print("Hello, world!");
}
}Java is an object oriented programming language, where everything must be inside an object – in this case the object is the class ‘HelloWorld’. The ‘{‘ indicates the beginning of the class. Notice that Java (like C++) has a main function, but it also has the keywords ‘public’ and ‘static’ in front of it. Every Java application must have a main function. Inside the parenthesis after the main function is the statement “String [] args”. This is the input to the program from the command line. We will discuss that more later. Then after the curly bracket ‘{‘, we have a call to the function ‘System.out.print()’. This is the basic output statement statement in Java. It writes things to the command line. What is passed to this function is the string “Hello, world!”. Following that, we have a semicolon to end the statement, a curly bracket to close the main function and a curly bracket to close the class HelloWorld.
Again, if you would like to compile this Java program, you’ll need a Java compiler. I recommend Eclipse, but getting a Java compiler will depend on your operating system again. The same link as above (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compilers) also lists a selection of Java compilers.
Until next time, I would recommend going to a few sites that have helped me out.
- One of my favorites is http://www.w3schools.com. They have a pretty good introduction to JavaScript as well as some other languages.
- I also love the “Programming with C++” and “Programming with Java” books by Schaum’s outlines (actually I recommend just about everything they put out. Its quality material for a good price).
- I recommend looking at source code and making modifications to it to see how the changes affect the output.
Next time, I’ll try to go over variable types and user input, which make programs interactive.