Programming Language

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    My experience building a program using Scratch 

    From my experience using Scratch, I believe there is a clear connection between Scratch and Computer science. Using Scratch has built confidence in me in creating things with computers and allowed me to explore coding using different programming languages. My first program was an animation that I created using blocks. I never got stuck with any syntax issues and any error messages since it uses blocks. I tried parallelism, which I later learned using Java and Python. 

Difficulties I encountered building program in Scratch 

    Using Scratch doesn’t give the programmer full control of the program. Some of the functions and instructions have already been set within the blocks when using Scratch. Such programs cannot be edited to suit the programmer’s needs (Maloney et al., 2010). Since it uses a drag and drop method, which lets children perform actions quickly and easily, actual code is not given; hence full control of objects is not achieved.

How I overcame the difficulties 

    To have a full code control, I learned other programming languages that are not block-based. I used Scratch only for learning purposes to understand the basic structure of a program.

Insights I gained about programming from Scratch 

    With the help of the Scratch programming language, I was able to visualize all the essentials of object-oriented programming at an early age. With Scratch, I was never stuck by any error messages and syntax errors, which allowed me to pursue computer science. I understood all the basic logic concepts that any object-oriented code can do using a graphical user interface. It acted as a starting point towards my current progress in the CS field.

Differences between programming languages 

    Scratch is a block-based programming language, while Python is a high-level object oriented programming language. Machine learning is a language that is in binary form, while assembly language is a low-level programming language that is converted into machine language through an assembler (software).

Easy-to-use language 

    The easiest to use is the Python programming language. Python has a great level of readability, which makes it easy to understand and implement. Python does not involve blocks or binary numbers like other languages. It uses English-like structures that are friendly to human understanding. 

Scenarios where each language was effective to use 

    Scratch was effective to use in creating animations. Python is greatly applied in the field such as software engineering, data science, automation, web development, and game development. Machine language is used in direct control of the computer’s CPU. On the other hand, assembly language is best applied in direct hardware manipulation through access to processor instructions. It is mainly used in device drivers, low-level embedded systems, and real time systems.

The most popular programming language and reason 

    Python remains to be the most popular programming language. This is attributed to its extensive usage as it is easy to learn. It has an easy and simple syntax, a large library, and can be easily integrated with other programming languages. It is the easiest language to build programs on.

Scratch URL link: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/480129259


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