Programming Languages

In week one of my Fundamentals of Information Technology and Literacy class I was tasked with making my very own program in Scratch. Scratch is a free visual based programming langue that is primarily used to teach children the basics of programming. In fact, this assignment was not my first foray into using the program Scratch. I had previously used Scratch to teach young elementary aged students the basics of programming when I was teaching overseas.

For my program for this class, I decided to create a basic game of pong. At first, I tried to create my own backgrounds and sprites, but I eventually concluded that I am not competent at making my own graphics. Instead, I changed it to just use the sprites and backdrops that come included with Scratch. Creating my own Sprites and backgrounds was probably the hardest difficulty that I had in creating this program. I have come to the conclusion that I just am not artistically inclined enough to create graphics. Other than that, I found scratch to be incredibly easy to learn and use. The only thing that I can see wrong with my project is that occasionally, the sound doesn't happen when it hits the edge of the frame. I'm not entirely sure why it works sometimes, but not consistently.

There are many different programming languages that exist. Some of the more popular options are Java, C++, and Python. Each language has different syntaxes and is best used for different purposes. Each language has its very own language that it follows that must be learned to utilize it. I really enjoyed being able to use Scratch this week because I didn’t have to worry about the different syntaxes of the language. I was able to use the blocks that were already created for me to “write my program”. When working with other languages, such as Python, I have to be much more diligent with my typing to ensure that a typo doesn’t ruin my programs. In this aspect, I find programs similar to Scratch to be the easiest to use. 

I think that high-level programming languages are the most practical because they can be used to create so many different things versus Scratch which is used to create little games or movies. However, I think that programs like Scratch are much easier to learn because the syntax is written already for you. For most higher-level languages, one has to really train themselves in the different syntax of the language they are attempting to use. This can take a lot of time and is something that I struggled with when it came to the different participation activities included in our textbook.

References:
Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. Retrieved from zybooks.zyante.com/