Programming Languages
Scratch
For this assignment, we had to learn how to use Scratch. Scratch is a block-based visual program that uses different actions, sounds, and words that can create various projects using a block interface. I was assigned to create a short program using 30 blocks. The program gave me art attachments such as animals, people, and mystical characters. The program also gave me different backgrounds and allowed me to create my own words to bring my characters to life. While this was my first time using a program like this, I got the hang of it and created my own mini-story using different block actions.
My Experience with Scratch
When I first started, I was intimidated because I was not used to the program, but looking at the tutorials, it brought some ease to my mind. I could handle this; it seems simple enough; all I have to do is get the characters given, paste them to a screen, and create actions for them to do with 30 blocks. That was my first mistake thinking it would be easy. While making the character say the stuff wasn’t too hard, I had some challenges with getting specific backdrops to appear when I wanted them to and having the words from the characters match up so that one character is done speaking. The second one doesn’t start while the other is still talking. Another challenge was figuring out how to make the backdrops match up with the story I was telling. Once I felt I got the hang of it, I thought it was fine; however, as I kept adding more stuff, I felt like I kept running into issues where my story would not line up as before.
How I overcame My Difficulties
One of the many difficulties I faced was what was the story I would tell. That stuck with me when trying to do this project, but I decided to check out the tutorials to get inspiration for my Idea. Going there and getting inspiration from what they had given me a better idea of what story I could tell for my project. Another difficulty I experienced was getting the story I wanted to convey to work correctly, as I mentioned before; At the same time, it was still a little hard to work out as I finished. I just kept going back to the tutorials on telling a story and seeing how they got the characters to move and different scenes to appear when I needed them to have the tutorials available was a huge help as I kept having to go back when something did not work out for me.
Insight Gained.
I gained insight into working with this program by seeing what graphic designers and video game developers go through. This project made me feel like I was creating a game or an animation project, and It gave me more insight into what they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Even though I only had a little experience in programming, this exercise showed me that while the video games and animated movies we love look easy to make, they take a lot of work and have excellent attention to detail.
Comparing Experiences
Using Scratch and reading chapters 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, and 2.11 of the textbook showed a lot of the two came together once I started working in scratch, seeing how we would move a code block for a specific character to have them do something or same something reminded me of Python where the block was the code and if we wanted the character to say something we would write it in the code block and it would perform that action. Also, when saving our projects, while the program would auto-save, I assumed it was saving on the cache or memory. Reading and then actually doing the program gave me more of a visual idea of the chapters I read.
Program Language.
On section 2.8 we started the chapter program language where it talks about the Transistor which the chapter describes it as a switch that can be switched on to let electricity flow from a first to second wire, or switched off, controlled by electricity on a third wire. A transistor is like a light switch, except turning the switch on or off is done electronically rather than by a human hand. Such switching results in some wires having a higher or lower electrical voltage, known as 1 or 0, respectively. A fingernail-sized IC has millions of transistors, each transistor so small as to be invisible to the naked eye.
In section 2.9 the chapter talked about the Assemblers and the assembly language. The chapter described Assembly language as a textual human-understandable representation of a machine language's 0's and 1's, as in: Add M[5] M[6] M[7] and a Assembler as a program that automatically converts an assembly language program into machine language.
In chapters 2.10 and 2.11, the book talked about High-Level Language, which has higher-level instructions than assembly language, enabling greater programmer productivity. The first mainstream high-level language was Fortran, from IBM in 1957, short for Formula Translation. A compiler program converts a high-level language to assembly/machine language. In Chapter 2.11 We got a brief introduction to python, Python is a high-level programming language, increasing in popularity due in part to being easy to learn, to being freely available, and to having powerful high-level data-processing operations. The language I found easiest was Python. While I didn’t know a lot about it I was familiar with the wording as I have heard it before a knew a little about it but after reading the chapter it gave me a little more insight on what it really does. I think the most popular language based on the ones we read would be python and cache. For Python with cell phones and tables being more popular in tech, those devices use a lot of apps and Python is a program that helps create apps and back-end development. For cache it saves stuff to our computer, at the job I currently work at we are constantly telling clients to clear their cache and cookies when they are having log-in issues.
Scenarios
There are a few scenarios I can see these languages used in the non-tech world; as I mentioned earlier, when we get clients that are having logging issues with their accounts, We would tell them to clear out their cache and cookies so that whatever was saved such as passwords, is now gone so that they will have a better chance of logging into their accounts online. If someone who needed a computer but is not sure if they should get a laptop, Tablet, or desktop computer, I would use what I learned in Chapter 2.3 (Types of Computer) and explain the differences between each computer when it comes to speed, memory, accessibility and convivence and help narrow down the best option for that consumer. Another scenario I could think of is if I was teaching a computer literacy class to people and they needed help understanding the differences between Hardware and software, I can explain the differences between what software does and what hardware does. Making it easier to understand what the software does vs. what hardware does when it comes to a computer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, reading these chapters and working on scratch let me know how everything in a computer comes together when it comes to coding writing different codes in the computer, and seeing the result. Learning more about what each component of the computer does from the memory and Cache comes in hand when it comes to the space of the computer and saving projects. Then working on Scratch, seeing more of a visual presentation of how everything I read came together. It taught me a lot more about programming, attention to detail, and the time it takes to craft something great on a computer.
References
George M Whitson III , A. A. (2021). https://rb.gy/29dkh
James Parker R. (2017). Python : an introduction to programming.
Scratch project https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/879014733/
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