Computer Science Principles: Programming

- Computers and hardware have one giant limitation. They can't do anything until they are told exactly what to do. That critical ingredient is where the programmer and coder comes in, to tell the computer what to do. From the very first theoretical computer, there was the need to come up with a way to give instructions, or steps for the computer to complete. These instructions have evolved in type and complexity over time. But one thing hasn't, the programmer.

That's what this course is all about. My name I'd Doug Winnie, and in this course I'll show you how programming languages work. I'll start by explaining the job of a programmer, taking a set of steps or a process that needs to be performed by a computer, and convert it from their language, like English, into a programming language. Just like spoken languages, computer programs use a set of rules to define the language. I'll discuss the basic elements of most programming languages, like variables, functions, and methods.

Next, I'll define conditional statements, and for while and do while loops. Then I'll jump into object-oriented programming. I'll explain classes, hierarchy, and polymorphism. Finally, I'll go beyond programming, diving into debugging, refactoring, version control systems, and multi-platform support. Once you know the basics, you can more easily learn specific languages to build on top of what you already know. It's time to introduce you to skills you can apply to almost any programming language in the future.