Break Into The Programming Business

Here we look at the common features of programming languages – functions, arguments, constants, variables, data types and more.

What are procedural and Object Oriented Programming (OOP) languages? This lesson explains the difference and takes a quick look at the history of OOP from the 1970s to the modern day.

What exactly is a ‘programming platform’? Here we look at various types of hardware and operating systems and also consider what is meant by ‘client-server’ and ‘cloud’ computing.

HTML, JavaScript, PHP, ASP, ActionScript, Ruby On Rails… these are just some of the languages and technologies used to create Web-based applications. Here I give a brief overview of ways to program the Web.

In practice, how is a dynamic web site programmed? Here we look at web servers, server-side scripting languages and Content Management Systems.

What is the difference between a code editor and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE)? Here I look at editors and IDEs for Windows, Mac and cross-platform and explain the real value of a good programming toolset.

Before you can choose a language to learn or decide on which language is right for a specific project, you need to know which languages are available. Here I quickly run through the main choices from C to Python, Objective-C to PHP, not forgetting C#, C++, Java, Delphi, VB, Perl, Ruby and many more…

So you want to become a programmer. Or you already have some programming experience and now you want to extend your knowledge by studying one or more new languages. How do you decide which language to learn? Here I offer some guidance.

Maybe you are starting a business or planning to develop an application. What decisions do you have to make when selecting the language, the technology and the programmers for your team?  

In this video I explain the basics of how the Ruby programming language implements object orientation. Ruby is one of the most rigorous Object Oriented languages around. Even a simple string such as “Hello” or an integer such a 100 is considered to be an object that contains both some data (The letters that make up “Hello” or the number 100) and code routines (‘methods’) which can act upon the object’s data. For example, a string object has the methods upcase and reverse which return the string object’s data in upper case or reversed.

This video is taken from my Ruby Programming For Beginners Course: https://www.udemy.com/learn-ruby-programming-in-ten-easy-steps/

C# (pronounced ‘C-Sharp’) is an important language for programming Microsoft Windows. It has a syntax that is derived from the C language and which has much in common with the Java language.

C# is an object oriented programming language and it is usually used within Microsoft’s ‘Visual Studio’ development environment. In fact, using 3^rd party tools (such as the ‘MonoDevelop’ environment), it is also possible to write and run C# programs on other operating systems including Mac OS X and Linux.

This video shows am example of creating a very simple C# application jusing Visual Studio on Windows. The video is taken from my course ‘Learn C# Programming (In Ten Easy Steps)’ (available on Udemy).

If you wish you subscribe to my C# course, use this link to get the course at a 60% discount (just $39 instead of the regular price of $99): https://www.udemy.com/learn-c-sharp-programming-in-ten-easy-steps/?couponCode=BRKCSHARP

Here I explain how to use another visual IDE, ‘Lazarus’, this time with the Object Pascal language. You will notice that the IDE has a broadly similar way of working to Visual Studio, but its layout – the position and appearance of its windows etc. – is rather different.

Lazarus also has the neat trick of running on multiple operating systems. You can create and run programs on Mac OS X, Linux or Windows. Unlike Ruby (which is an ‘interpreted’ language whose source code is run ‘as is’), Pascal is a ‘compiled’ language (the source code has to be translated into machine code and saved into an ‘executable file’ for each different operating system on which it runs). Lazarus uses the Free Pascal compiler to create executable programs.

Notice how different the syntax of the Pascal language is from that of C#. Whereas C#, and other C-like languages, use lots of curly brackets { and } to delimit blocks of code, Pascal uses the keywords begin and end.

Pascal with Lazarus is a great system for developing programs visually that can be compiled (for fast execution) on multiple operating systems. Lazarus and Free Pascal are both available at no cost. The Object Pascal language is also used in the commercial Delphi programming system.

This video is taken from my course: Learn To Program With Pascal. If you wish you subscribe to this course, use this link to SAVE $110 and get the course for just $39 instead of the regular price of $149.
https://www.udemy.com/learn-to-program-with-pascal/?couponCode=BRK2PASCAL

Here are some short explanations of some terms that are frequently used in computer programming. The aim here is to keep the definitions brief and easy to understand. If you have any requests for more definitions, please ask...