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

Understanding the binary system

Why is it that computers only work with zeros and ones? Why can't they work directly with text or images, for example? The answer is that it is rather easy to build circuits that can represent two states. If you have an electrical wire, you can either run electricity through it or not. The flow or no flow of electricity could represent several things, such as on or off, true or false, or zero or one. Let's think of these two states as zero and one for now, with zero representing no electricity flowing and one symbolizing that we do have flow. If we can serve these two states, we could add more wires and, by doing that, have more zeros and ones.

But what could we possibly do with all of these zeros and ones? Well, the answer is that we can do almost anything. For example, with only zeros and ones, we can represent any integer by using the binary numeral system. Let's demonstrate how that works.

To understand binary numbers, we must...