Adventures in Coding

Eva Holland, Chris Minnick

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119232698
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Hardware
• Index: Computer Science

Learn to code the fun way with nine real projects for true beginners

Adventures in Coding is written specifically for young people who want to learn how to code, but don't know where to begin. No experience? No problem! This book starts from the very beginning to take you from newbie to app-builder in no time. You'll 'learn by doing' as you build projects designed to help you master fundamental programming skills—and you'll have a great time doing it. These skills form the foundation of any programmer's tool set, and you'll continue to use them as you graduate to other devices and more difficult projects. Each chapter includes a video to help clear up any confusion and make sure you really understand, so you can keep programming your way through every single project without hitting major roadblocks. If you're ready to start designing your own program, this book will help you get started today.

More and more kids are learning to code, and many schools offer basic programming classes as part of the regular curriculum. This book is structured like a class, starting with the basics and building skill upon skill, making it both a perfect accompaniment to formal instruction and an ideal guide for self-study.

• Learn the basic programming skills you'll use everywhere
• Build nine fun projects from super-basic to pretty challenging
• Build the skills you need to create bigger and better apps
• Watch video tutorials for extra help and explanations

How many times have you played with an app only to find yourself wishing it had this or that feature? If you learn how to code, you can be the creator of the next big app! But it all starts with that first small project. Adventures in Coding provides all the information you need, so let's get coding!

PROGRAMMING COMPUTERS IS a lot of fun. It’s also a skill that many people see as mysterious and even magical. This chapter unmasks programming to show you just how easy it can be to start your own coding adventure.

Coding Is Everywhere

Computer programming, also known as coding, is how people tell computers what to do. What sorts of things can you do after you learn to program? For starters, you can write your own computer games, create modifications (or “mods”) for existing games, program robots to do your bidding, create beautiful computer art and animations, and instruct your computer to play songs! The best part is that the whole time you’re doing all these fun things, you’re learning a valuable skill that is in sky-high demand!

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Coding is a common name for computer programming. When you code, you’re using a computer language to tell computers what to do.

Can you think of other things that computers can do? Think of all the things that programmers can tell computers to do. There are hundreds, or thousands, of things. Think about all the things you see computers do every day—and not just the fun things. Computer programs are used to create new medicines, design buildings, do complex mathematics, control cars, and so much more.

This is the amazing world in which computer programmers live; we get to solve interesting problems every day and do things that other people see as magic.

Speaking the Language of Machines

All sorts of different people are programmers. Programmers come from different places and countries, with different experiences and different training. They speak different languages, have many different interests, and program for different reasons. What they have in common is that they’ve learned to speak at least one language that is understood by computers.

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A programmer is a person who writes computer programs.

Computers don’t speak the same languages that people do. People speak languages such as English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and many others. Computers speak machine language. Machine language is a difficult-to-read (for us) language that uses numbers to provide instructions to computers.

If machine language were the only way people could talk to computers, coding would be difficult. Fortunately, people have invented languages, called programming languages, which make it easier for people to talk to computers. Here are some examples of programming languages:

• JavaScript
• BASIC
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• Java
• Visual Basic
• C
• C++
• Scratch

These languages all have one thing in common: They take words and symbols that people understand and translate them into words and symbols that computers understand.

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A programming language is a language used for giving instructions to computers.

The examples in this book use Scratch. Scratch is a language that was invented at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It was designed to be easy for beginners to learn while using (and teaching) all of the most important things that programmers need to know.

Knowing Your Coding Lingo

You already know some of the lingo of coding. You know that “coding” is just another name for “computer programming,” and you know that people who do computer programming—or coding—are called computer programmers (or coders).

Programming languages, like human languages, are made up of different parts. In English, we have nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and other parts of speech, not to mention punctuation, and they form sentences and paragraphs. In programming language...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Authors
• Contents
• Introduction
• Adventure 1: Scratching the Surface
• Adventure 2: Where in the World Is Scratch?
• Adventure 3: Using Control Blocks
• Adventure 4: Using Sensing Blocks
• Adventure 5: Using Event Blocks
• Adventure 6: Variables and Lists
• Adventure 7: Using Operators in Scratch
• Adventure 8: Using Graphics and the Pen
• Adventure 9: Building Your Own Blocks
• Adventure 10: Making and Using Sounds and Music
• Adventure 11: Exploring the Scratch Universe
• Appendix A: Installing the Scratch Offline Editor
• Appendix B: Testing Your Programs
• Glossary
• End User License Agreement