Programming Languages



Beginning an introduction to programming languages is an exciting start to the IT world! Programming languages allow us to harness different aspects of technology and use our creativity to imagine what could be. This journey began with a dive into Machine Language, Assembly Language, and High‐Level Languages, and ended with small project created in Scratch. These languages built upon each other and provided a new opportunity, and each has its own place where it best fits. Much like how the technology we use fits in to place, so does each person entering the technology field, with their own preference on the type of technology they use and the languages within it. It all fits together like the puzzle pieces that were so beautifully designed for Scratch. 

Creating a project in Scratch was a fun, hands‐on introduction to programming languages. At first it felt a little overwhelming to dive into a program I hadn’t used before, but the platform was user‐friendly and easy to figure out. I watched a couple of tutorials before deciding to create a click game. The tutorials were incredibly helpful in learning how to create a variable, which I may not have known by myself, but was made easy by the tutorial. From there, I spent some time looking at the backgrounds and sprite options to decide on a theme and started putting bricks together to see how they worked. The biggest difficulty was finding the best way to make the motions and loops stop when I wanted them to. I overcame this by trying new bricks and starting the game over until I found the right combination. The bricks were easy to manipulate, it was very much like putting a puzzle together and finding the missing pieces. I learned what commands were programmed on the first sprite only, and which needed to be programmed on all sprites. I also learned that I couldn’t add all the bricks to each other in a straight line, some commands needed to begin a new line. Scratch provided great visual cues for this, as the beginning events were shaped so that they couldn’t be added under another function. You can play my game Parrot Pop on Scratch!


The Scratch project added on to the interactive activities in the textbook, which helped me to piece together things that were less intuitive. This was especially so for the Machine Language section, where the text incorporated meanings step by step, such as 01 for input, 11 for add, and 10 for output. While I enjoyed the interaction the text offered, a simulation doesn’t bring the same sense of pride as having created something, even something small, in a live environment. It all made for an engaging way to be introduced to the format of programming languages, and similarly, the more time I could spend in it, the more sophisticated of a design I would be able to make and with greater ease. 


The different programing languages all build upon one another. Machine language is the language that a computer can read, in a string of 0s and 1s. Assembly language was made to be simplified and more readable for the people using it. High‐Level languages were made to support formulas and have greater functionality for programmers. The different high‐level languages each have their own uses, based on their functionality. High‐level languages are then translated to assembly language and assembly language to machine language, they supplement each other rather than replace each other. Of these, I found the section on Python to be the easiest to use, mainly because it used the most plain text and had less translating that needed to be done to interpret the code. Each language would be useful in its own way. Machine language is the one that computers understand, so a good understanding of machine and assembly language would be more effective for more in‐depth involvement with hardware. High‐level languages have a greater functionality to be more effective in creating and maintaining software applications. 


I believe the most popular programming language right now to be JavaScript, as it is used universally in web‐based applications. According to Berkeley, JavaScript is the most commonly used language in the world, it is used to manage the behavior of web pages, and is the language used for the interactive features of webpages (Berkeley, 2022). With modern technology utilizing online functionality more and more, learning a universally used and supported programming language like JavaScript is the way to go. Although Python is easily seen as popular, especially recently, due to its ease and wide range of use. Python is used in social media platforms, as well as AI, which makes it a desirable skill (Eastwood, 2020). With so many different uses of programming languages, it’s impossible to pick only one. There is a use for each one and something for everyone. Machine Language, Assembly Language, High‐Level Language, and Scratch were an engaging start to the programming world. 

References

Eastwood, B. (2020, June 18). The 10 Most Popular Programming Languages to Learn in 2022. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/most‐popular‐programming‐languages/

University of California, Berkeley Extension. (2022). 11 Most In‐Demand Programming Languages of 2022. Retrieved October 10, 2022. https://bootcamp.berkeley.edu/blog/most‐in‐demand‐ programming‐languages/ 

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