Monday, December 9, 2013

Hour of Code

We all know learning a new language is useful—from increasing brain size, IQ, and communication skills to starving off Alzheimer's, as well as expanding how you think.

The Hour of Code is an effort to have 10 million people participate during Computer Science Education Week, which runs from Dec. 9 through 15. Programming will surprise you. There may not be another activity that better pulls skills from both the creative and the logical parts of you. Artists love it, as do accountants. And, of course, it is the future.



There are sites on line where you can start your "Hour of Code" or even sign up at an Apple Store for a free course on Wednesday.

5 comments:

Big Myk said...

Is HTML code?

James R said...

No. Technically, the ML stands for Markup Language, but it has little relationship to a language for programming. However, many people who start out learning HTML will migrate to Javascript (no relationship to Java) which can be embedded into HTML to do all sorts of programming things like manipulate databases or write HTML code "on the fly" (as the page is being loaded).

James R said...

I think "relationship" was a poor choice of words, better would be "in common". Code typically means variables which could contain strings (words) or numbers, or other objects, and expressions which manipulate those items (assignment, conditionals, loops). HTML really does not feature any of that, although you are manipulating words, numbers, and other objects like pictures and sound to appear on the page the way you want it. However, if you wanted to write a game or anything dynamic "in HTML" (for a browser), you would need to use Javascript or another language you could embed in your HTML files.

James R said...

Here is the Hour of Code lessen. It's fun! Try it.

I went through a couple of the steps and, like all code, there are bugs. When you get to where you must turn to get to the pig, I tried turning left 3 times instead of turning right. Although I hopped onto the pig, the program said I failed. Apparently they are also teaching efficient coding! You need to use "turn right" to succeed. (Although you could turn left three times, then turn right four times.)

James R said...

In programming, like in everything we do, accuracy, re spelling, is important. Here is the Hour of Code lesson.