Tutorial to Proffessional Coding

I'm going to talk about the fundamentals of learning how to use certain languages for things, and what's good to use and not good to use.

Step 1: What is a Programming language? How can I use a Programming language?

A programming language is an instruction pattern that's similar to the structure of a human language, but instead of communicating in subjects, verbs, and other similar things, programming languages communicate in number calculations and definitions. It's a bit tricky to learn if you don't know how it works, but after learning how to use a certain programming language, it becomes easier to comprehend.

Generally, there are two way to use programming languages: making programs, and scripting. Sometimes, the two can be a bit confused, because they have similar qualities, and a language called python can be used for both purposes. I'll explain the differences in the following paragraphs.

Making programs is the more complex one. You can use multiple programs to make a program depending on what you want and what device the program will use, but in any case, you will be using an IDE to write the program in, and a compiler to turn the written code into a usable program. Visual Basic, all C varients, and Ruby are examples of program building languages. I'll talk about using certain programs/languages and why later.

Scripting is much simpler. in scripting, you cannot change the source code of a program permanently, but you can alter the runtime memory it uses, so as long as you're using a script file, the changes it makes will be applied. However, you can only use scripting when the source code allows it to be applied. LUA, ActionScript, GML, and Batch are examples of scripting languages.

However, please note that web page languages (HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc.) are not programming languages. HTML is a markup language, which means that it only creates structures and doesn't execute commands, and Javascript doesn't really do all the functions of a program either.

Step 2: How do I make my first program?

The simplest way you can make a program is a text box. However, you'll obviously need to go more from there, so what should you do?

For a first language, I'd highly recommend Visual Basic. The code reads more like an English voice than most languages, and it's really good for making application windows from my experience.

Anyways, a good step afterward would be another simple thing, such as a calculator. Making a calculator will help you learn how to make certain variables be changed by commands, how to make buttons active those commands, and how to make the variables interact with each other after they've been set. these are very important when making programs, especially video games. Make your calculator more and more complex, and after you've made a super-complex calculator, (as a challenge, make it have all the features of a scientific calculator, make all the buttons have images on them, and make the equation material image-based ^_^) let's read step 3.

Step 3: IDEs and compilers

An IDE is an Integrated Development Environment, which basically means that it's the place where you write your source code, which is the core code the program uses. However, whenever you test your program, all you get is runtime memory, not a stand alone program. How do you turn your written source code into what you want, a stand alone program? That's what a decompiler is for. A compiler changes a written code file into machine code, which can be used outside of the IDE. However, compilers can compile your code into different kinds of files depending on what you want your program to run on, so you have to be careful about how you compile. For example, if I compiled my code into an executable file (.exe) in Visual C++, then it wouldn't be able to run on a mac or linux without a virtual machine.

If you want to write with a specific language for a specific device, then you'll have to find a compiler for it. There's plenty of compilers to choose from, but only a few can give you the language and compiling method you want. Unfortunately, I can't list them at the moment due to an anti-spam feature.

Next will be Step 4: Making apps for non-computer devices.

Ah, this is a good read. Continue with it and I'll gladly keep reading.

Thanks, though I doubt it'd be help to anyone except little kids. (or a really confused guy)