Monday, November 2, 2020

Programming With Scratch

 

Programming Languages

With the program Scratch, I found the use of block programming straightforward and easier to use. After a few tutorials, I understood how to figure out what kind of program I wanted to code, and the tutorials helped me know how to code with scratch. The difficulties I encountered with the program were not capable of getting a character to change costumes while moving simultaneously. Not being able to do this made it difficult for me to create the program I envisioned truly. To overcome that, I did more tutorials on the program and decided to compromise on not changing the costumes while moving to get my desired output. This program helped me understand the differences between high-level and low-level programming. This program used high-level programming that utilized an interpreter to translate my source code. Although scratch wasn’t directly similar to Code Combat, which uses block programming, it had many similarities. Continuous coding was one of the most useful tools to assist me with not having to re-input the same codes continuously.

As a novice programmer, I found that scratch was the easiest to use compared to machine language, assembly language, and high-level languages. However, scratch does allow much control over the program as the source codes were already generated for me. Scratch used an interpreter to translate the inputs in machine language that is a low-level language that I do not have the extensive knowledge to understand fully. Assembly language is easier to understand than machine level but more challenging than that of scratch programming. I can imagine the scratch program got its core fundamentals from the high-level languages, but the scratch program is still a high-level language compared to the others as it is more user-friendly.

Low-level languages consist of languages that are machine specific and require expert knowledge of computer hardware. These languages include machine language, binary code that is directly understood by the computer, assembly language, and sets of symbols and letters that require translation to machine language. Low-level languages give the programmer more control of a program but require more time to create. High-level languages use symbols and English in their instructions and need an interpreter or compiler to translate into machine languages. A high-level language is easier to use for me as it doesn’t require me to understand binary code yet. The most popular high-level language today would be C++ programming. Low-level languages would be suitable for creating operating systems programs as it allows more control over the coding. High-level programming is useful for creating applications such as mobile apps.

 

Link to the Scratch program.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/432173835

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