If you are new to computer programming, it is important to understand some general concepts and principles. Programming computer languages can be categorized into several types, which include Mark-up languages, interpreted programming languages and compiled language. In addition to these types, there is a special type of programming language, which requires the compiler to create a byte code that can be executed through an additional application.
Programming concepts and principles:
Programming for beginners requires you to start learning the basic concepts and principles. If you write a program, you need to store data and manipulate it with a series of instructions. The data can include amount of time and countable items, like date, names and descriptions. Data types determine how to store the data and how it can be used.
Data types are indispensable for any computer programming language. They help to maintain information within the program. The programming languages have several constraints upon the data types provided by them. The common data types are numbers, characters and strings and pointers. Numbers are either integers or floating points. For instance, 20 is an integer, 20.2631 is a floating point number. The character data type is used to store letters, numbers, space and symbols. The string data type hides the internals from the programmer and they can be manipulated by using the exposed functions. The pointer is used to refer a piece of memory. It can also be used to store arrays.
While learning programming, you need to understand the variables that are an integral part of any language. The variables offer temporary storage for information that would be required during the lifetime of the program. They are also useful in transferring information from one part of the program to another part. If a variable can be accessed and /or changed by a given part of the program, it is said to be in scope and the variable is known as local variable. Global variables, on the other hand can be accessed by any part of the program.
Output is another significant feature of a programming language. It is worth understanding different types of outputs available in most of the programming languages. Text output is the most common type that offers an easy way to output the result of a computer program. Graphical output is slightly difficult and it requires higher resolution too.
Testing conditions let you determine the path through a program, by executing the code that is based on a value compared against an expression. The value can be constant, variable, or another expression. The programming languages use “if” statement as a testing condition statement. Most of the programming languages allow you to define “else” statement to define a block of code to be executed in case the validation fails.
If you are planning to try some beginners programming languages, it is better to gain clear understanding of the general concepts and principles of the language. Knowing the concepts behind the language can be really helpful in becoming an expert in that language.
Author: Steven Winters