Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

By : Joakim Wassberg
4 (1)
Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

4 (1)
By: Joakim Wassberg

Overview of this book

Learning how to code has many advantages, and gaining the right programming skills can have a massive impact on what you can do with your current skill set and the way you advance in your career. This book will be your guide to learning computer programming easily, helping you overcome the difficulties in understanding the major constructs in any mainstream programming language. Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners starts by taking you through the building blocks of any programming language with thorough explanations and relevant examples in pseudocode. You'll understand the relationship between computer programs and programming languages and how code is executed on the computer. The book then focuses on the different types of applications that you can create with your programming knowledge. You'll delve into programming constructs, learning all about statements, operators, variables, and data types. As you advance, you'll see how to control the flow of your programs using control structures and reuse your code using functions. Finally, you'll explore best practices that will help you write code like a pro. By the end of this book, you'll be prepared to learn any programming language and take control of your career by adding coding to your skill set.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Computer Programs and Computer Programming
6
Section 2: Constructs of a Programming Language
7
Chapter 5: Sequence – The Basic Building Block of a Computer Program
14
Section 3: Best Practices for Writing High-Quality Code
Appendix B: Dictionary
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W

Summary

In this chapter, we looked at some of the more essential concepts that go into software development that have nothing to do with the actual coding. Even if we are not working on large-scale, professional projects, we should still version control our code, write tests to verify that the code does what it is supposed to, and work iteratively.

We began by learning that version control systems are a great tool that will help us not only be able to go back in time to an earlier version of the code, but also help us share our code with other developers in our team.

Then, we saw that to verify that the code we have written is doing what it is supposed to, we need to test it. In this case, we have something called unit tests and integration tests that we should perform to make sure that the application produces the correct result and that the new code does not produce any side effects, which would produce an undesirable result for a code that worked successfully in a previous...