Computer+Programs

What is a Computer Program?

To make a computer do something useful, you must give it instructions in one of two ways:


 * Buy a program that someone else has already written that tells the computer what to do for example, Microsoft word or a game such as Assassins Creed (I would recommend this one!) or:
 * Write a program that tells a computer what to do, step by step, much as you write out a recipe. This is what we will be doing with Scratch.



Examples of Programs you might buy. Can you think/list five others types of program?
 * Type of Program || [[image:white filler.JPG width="47" height="31"]] || Input ||
 * Word processor ||  || Characters you type from the keyboard ||
 * Spreadsheet ||  || Numbers and text ||
 * Game ||  || Keystrokes or joystick movements ||
 * An App ||  || A tap or swipe of a finer ||

Programming is problem-solving - what if there is a problem you have to solve but no one has <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">created a program for it yet? or you have an idea for a game that no one has come up with yet. Why not write the program yourself. Programming isn't difficult, it just takes time.

[[image:abcprogramming/problem_solving.jpg]]

 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">A program tells the computer how to solve a specific problem.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Because the world is full of problems, the number of programs that people can write for computers is practically endless.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">To get a computer how to solve one big problem, you usually have to tell the computer how to solve a bunch of little problems.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">If you want to make your own video game, you might need to solve some of the following problems:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Determine how far to move a cartoon figure on-screen as the user moves a joystick.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Detect whether the cartoon figure bumps into a wall, falls off a cliff, or runs into another figure on-screen.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Make sure that the cartoon figure doesn't make any illegal moves, such as walking through a wall.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Draw the terrain surrounding the cartoon figure and make sure that if the cartoon figure walks behind an object such as a tree, the tree realistically blocks the figure from sight.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">As the picture shows, there are many different programming languages. In reality, there are over 2500.



<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">luckily, we are using Scratch, which is a version of 'BASIC'. With Scratch, you don't have learn a new language, we are given the language! You just have to learn how to use the language to get programs to do what you want them to do.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Programming isn't difficult; it's just time-consuming
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">And to prove it, look at a couple of excellent games created by S2 pupils in Dunoon at:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">I:\1.A New Public1 structure\Business and Computing\Business & Computing Pupils\computing\1 - S1 & S2\CHS Scratch


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Task [[image:abcprogramming/task.jpg width="229" height="200"]] ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">In this task, all you have to do is think!
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">How did you find the games?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Do you think you could have done better?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">Whats good about the games and what don't you like? ||