Learning To Program - Part 1: Getting Started

Learning To Program - An Introduction
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and I've put together this course to teach you programming. I have found computer programming and software development to be rewarding both as a hobby and as a profession. It's part puzzle solving and part art. You can learn something new every day if you want, and you get better at programming with every program that you write. What's wonderful about computer programming these days is that there are so many different types of computers and so many different types of programs too. You might want to create a racing game for a phone or a business application for a desktop computer. Or maybe you want to build a website or write programs for devices that control lab instruments or the lights on appliances in your home. Maybe you just want to write programs to help yourself organize your finances or photographs. But whatever the reason you want to learn programming, there is an entire world of opportunities you can choose from. Many different jobs, many different hobbies, and many different fun challenges are waiting for you. I designed this course to give you the basics you need to know to get started for any type of programming. And once you learn how to control a computer and make it do your bidding, you'll have a skill that is highly valued in today's world.

Learning To Program - Editors and Code Files
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and in this module we're going to learn a little more about using source code editors and other tools to write some JavaScript programs. If you followed along in the introduction, we spent a lot of time in the Node REPL. That's a great way to experiment with JavaScript and get started, but to really write a program we're going to need an editor. An editor helps us write JavaScript code, and we need to create JavaScript source code files and save those files on our computers. That way the program stays around, and we can run it tomorrow or next week or next year. This module is going to show you some of the basics of working with a source code editor, managing JavaScript files, and using Node to execute the JavaScript for a program in a saved file.

Learning To Program - Variables and Types
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and in this module of Learning to Program we're going to talk a bit about variables and types. Nearly every computer programming language has variables of some sort because variables are incredibly useful. A variable allows us to store some data in a program and retrieve the data at some later point. You can think of variables like variables in algebra. But if you don't like math, don't worry. I won't ask you to solve any equations. I just want to show you how variables work. I also want to talk about types in JavaScript, and we'll drill into some of the funny syntax we saw for arrays in the last module. I hope, as always, that you'll follow along, pause the video if need be, and try your own experiments.

Learning To Program - Functions
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and this module is about functions. We'll see how functions work, why we want to use functions, and continue programming with Node. js and JavaScript to run some experiments with functions.

Learning To Program - Branch And Loop
Hi. This is Scott Allen of Pluralsight, and in this module we're going to look at controlling the flow of execution in a program. This is where we check to see if something is true or false, like is a test score high enough to warrant the best grade in the class, or is it the lowest? We'll also be looking at looping in a program, which is a technique you can use to repeatedly execute a piece of code. That's something you might need to do if you need to compute the sum of a series of numbers. This and more awaits you in this module.

Learning To Program - Objects
Hi. This is Scott Allen with Pluralsight, and this module is all about objects. There are many modern programming languages that have the concept of objects including the JavaScript language we've been working with. And JavaScript offers a number of different techniques for creating objects, but we're going to stick with one easy approach that will teach us some of the fundamentals of working in a language that supports objects.

Learning To Program - Tests
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and this module is a look at testing JavaScript code. When we write code for a program, we need to see if the code is working properly. We all know that bugs and software are everywhere. It can be a challenge to write a program that works 100% correctly the first time. The process of checking your program to see if it works and produces the right numbers and doesn't crash, it's called testing. There are all sorts of techniques that you can use to test your code. For simple programs, you can just run the program after you add some code or make changes to see if it produces the right results. In this module I want to introduce you to automated testing. Automated testing can run your program again and again and automatically make some checks to see if it's working correctly. This is just a basic introduction to testing to give you an idea of what many professional developers will do to improve the quality of the software they create. I hope it helps you in the future by making you aware of these practices and also allows you to try out testing on your own to make sure some complicated pieces of code are working correctly.

Learning To Program - Final
Hi. This is Scott Allen, and this is the final module in this first course of Learning To Program. In this module we'll enhance the gradeBook from the last module and then take the gradeBook to the web using Node and a web browser.