Recently in school, we were introduced to the world of programming and pseudo-code. This was one topic that I was ecstatic about learning as I knew that the future of the world is based on this subject. Enthusiastic about programming, I had started to learn a bit on my own by practising simple lines of python code and as I started to venture into programming, I had found python relatively easy. Going into the world of programming, I had imagined it as something extremely complicated like an alien language or hieroglyphics; however, as I started to code a bit on my own I came to know that it wasn’t as exaggerated as i made it seem. All it required was Logic and vast knowledge of the different commands and statements that could be used.
A few days later, our school had begun with a beginners guide to pseudo-code. I soon came to realise that pseudocode varied quite a bit from python. For example, pseudocode had “Arrays” which could be used to store a group of elements that were usually the same data type whereas python had used “lists” which could be used for a similar use but had the ability to store different data types.
We were also told that pseudocode was a supposedly simpler version of programming code that uses shorter phrases and is easier to write. Nevertheless, I had preferred python over pseudocode since, in pseudocode, you aren’t given the opportunity to see the output of the code you have written because pseudocode wasn’t a real type of programming code as it says in the name. Hence this made it harder for me to understand the workings of the line of code that i wrote and its effects on the final output.
Furthermore, we had learnt flowcharts which was another way of writing a programme and honestly, I found it more straightforward as in flowcharts there are usually only two options: “yes” or “no”. Additionally, it seemed easier to grasp due to the visual representation of each line of code and its consequent outcomes depending on the input ”yes” or ”no”. Secondly, flowcharts use different types and shapes of boxes in which the code is entered. This made it easier to understand whether than particular line of code was a conditional statement or an output statement. For example, an oval would represent the start or end of a programme, a parallelogram would show that the line of code is for data input or output, a rectangle would signal that the line of code was for data processing and a rhombus would denote that the line of code for decision making like “yes” or “no”.
Overall, I have started to understand the basics and I am quite intrigued with the different programming languages, nevertheless, I have heard stories on how much more daunting and onerous Java is compared to Python so that probably means I have just scratched the surface of this massive coal mine and there’s a substantial volume of code yet for me to learn.