There are several apps out there that can help ease you into the world of programming languages. Here, we played around with Scratch.
Given how long it has been since I have had any reason to write code, it took a little getting used to having to think about every detail needed to make things work. It was a bit frustrating having to flip back and forth between the sprites and the stage, having to work with only each individual sprite at a time and not being able to reference or incorporate other sprites and their actions to properly write what I was accustomed to, such as calling a method or class.
Scratch is very good in helping you see the different functions and how they work due to its color-coded blocks, but the textbook was better in understanding how the code works. Scratch’s blocks are stacked together continuously. While this is the norm, the lack of space made it somewhat difficult to adjust and pinpoint the code. This forced you to remove all the blocks and adjust one by one to make any changes or correct any issues. The textbook had more space to work with, making it easy to format and organize. It was appreciated to not have to write the alternative versions of the sprites (costumes), having those already made was a such good timer-saver. And having the sprites options already included in some of the blocks made it really easy to change functions as when needed.
The programming languages introduced do resemble each other. Python lacks the ; at the end of a syntax that Java and JavaScript use, but the actual writing of code is much less complex and long-winded. It is no wonder why it has gained so much popularity. Because Java Script is the more “basic” of the languages mentioned, its usually used in design scenarios, whereas Java is more “database” centric.
You can check out this link below to see what I was able to pull together using Scratch.
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