Describe your experience building a program using Scratch
Once I completed
my project, I was very satisfied and happy to have used this program, as it is
easy to create projects without learning a specific programming language.
Still, it is very effective in teaching the logical flow of events.
Identify the difficulties that
you encountered in Scratch.
I have never seen
or used Scratch before; therefore, this was completely new to me, and I had to
learn it from scratch; having taken some programming classes earlier in my
career, I have a little background in programming logic, so this helped me create
the simple project.
Explain how you overcame the
difficulties.
The primary
difficulty was understanding how to use the interface to add the resources
needed to make the project work. I looked on the tutorials page within the
scratch website and went to YouTube to look for third-party tutorials on how to
use the interface. I had no idea what to create at first, but once I learned
how to add the coding blocks, backgrounds, and sounds, the simple project idea
began formulating. Although simple, my project is entertaining and easy to
follow.
Some of the logic
I wanted to create was not available with the built-in programming blocks and
would require spending more time to experiment and learn how to create my
blocks with the logic behavior I desired, which would have been more
complicated than what was needed for this project.
Describe the insights that you
gained about programming from this exercise.
The objective of a
visual programming tool such as Scratch is to facilitate and exercise the
creation steps using logical blocks rather than code; as with any other
computer program, it is necessary first to get familiar with how to use the
program before being able to use it to build useful or complete projects.
Compare your experience
programming in Scratch with the textbook activities related to programming
languages.
The textbook
activities had more of a guided sequence that was easy to follow in just a few
moments, therefore, simple to complete. Scratch, as mentioned above, requires
familiarization with the program before producing a workable project. As a visual
programming language, any project can be created faster than any other language.
Describe the differences between
the programming languages.
The languages learned
in this week’s class are different in complexity and how humans can read them. Although
a human can learn the binary numbering system, it is almost impossible for a
person to write code in machine language. Therefore, it is necessary to create compilers
that add levels of abstraction. This is aided by the fact that many actions a
program runs are repetitive; therefore, it is more efficient to use higher-level
languages that are easier to understand by humans, including many of those
repetitive tasks, without having to write them. Python is an example of a
high-level language. The website watelectronics defines a programming language
as “a notation designed to connect instructions to a machine or a computer.”
Identify the language your found
easiest to use.
The easiest
language among those studied in this section would be Python, which is the
closest to how a person would think with easy-to-remember statements or
functions. “As far as easy-to-learn programming languages go, Python is up
there with the best of them.” (futurelearn.com)
Describe scenarios where each
type of programming language would be most effective.
Programming
languages have benefits and shortcomings; Python is easier to learn and very useful
in many areas, not only to create programs but also for other types of general
use, such as automating repetitive tasks on different operating systems
platforms such as Windows and the many Linux distributions available. Other
languages, such as Perl, are very effective for file management in Unix and
some Linux distributions natively; however, it requires a little more work to
be useful in Windows. SQL is a language used to write code to manage databases.
Explain which programming
language you think is the most popular and why.
Python is one of
the easiest languages to learn and has seen more general-purpose widespread unsurprisingly,
its object-oriented nature lends itself to writing purpose-driven programs,
automation code for system administration, and other purposes.
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