#02 Learn the basics of coding

Learn the basics of coding

In accordance with the 2015 revised curriculum, elementary school students in grades 5 and 6 have been required to code more than 17 hours per year. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland and Israel, coding education is already mandatory in many countries. Since 2018, middle school is mandatory and high school is an optional curriculum.

It is still mentioned as a key element of unfamiliar coding education and the 4th industrial revolution ①. Now I think I should be interested in even a little bit.

Let ’s summarize the second coding class, “Basic Coding Terminology,” with Super C and JoCoding.

What is “coding”?

“Coding” means to write code as a compound word of Code + ing. The code here is the language that the computer can understand, in short, telling the computer. In the past, the performance of the computer was not as good as it was now, so there was not much you could do with coding. But the power to do billions of operations per second and to command a computer that is connected to the world over the Internet is tremendous.

In modern society, coding is magical. Writing code like memorizing magic spells can make inanimate objects look like intelligent creatures, automatically correcting and synthesizing your photos, and creating games and communities for billions of people around the world. In addition, by automating tasks, tasks that take months can be processed in a short time. “Coding” is another thing that can do a lot of different things. If you can code, you can feel like a wizard.

What is a programming language?

What code is used for coding, which language can give a command to a computer? In fact, the computer can only recognize 0’s and 1’s that are on and off. In other words, in order to give a command to the computer, “0100101001” must use only ‘0’ and ‘1’ in this way so that the computer can understand and perform the desired action.

This machine-readable language is called “machine language”. But every time you memorize and use such a complicated command ‘101010101’, it will be very difficult for those who command it, right? So I developed it in a more efficient way. That’s what we call “programming languages.”

Advanced language? Low-level language?

Just as the languages ​​we use vary from country to country, there are also a wide variety of programming languages ​​that evolve machine language. Among these languages, the form closer to machine language is called “lower language”, and the closer it is to human language, it is called “higher language”.

Low-level languages ​​are relatively complex and difficult to use, but can be fine-tuned internally within the computer and run faster. On the other hand, higher-level languages ​​tend to be easier for humans to learn and use, while detailed manipulation and execution speed may be slightly lower.

In addition, programming languages ​​are divided into “high-level languages” and “low-level languages,” and there are a variety of specialized languages ​​for each purpose.

Framework? library? API? SDK?

If you know a programming language, you can create a program that you want to create by commanding it directly on your computer.

However, it can be difficult to develop what you need for every step from the beginning. For example, when creating an app, if you need to create functions that are basically used in other apps from the beginning, such as the ability to log in or view a bulletin board, it will take a lot of time. However, programs with functions that are widely used by default have created a collection of tools that experts can easily develop and implement. In other words, there are a lot of tools that have been created in advance so that you can conveniently use practically used functions. These tools are frameworks, libraries, APIs, and SDKs.

All four are easy to understand and go beyond the concept of “pre-made tools to use,” but let’s look at the concepts in detail.

▶ The framework is to provide a framework that allows the design and implementation to be reused by capturing the overall structure of the application.

▶ The library is to provide the created function in the form of a function or class so that it can be easily used where needed.

The framework looks like a library, but the library is more than just code reuse, with the difference that the framework holds the overall framework for development.

▶ API is an interface ② that makes it easy to use functions created by the abbreviation of Application Programming Interface in applications.

▶ SDK stands for Software Development Kit and means a set of development tools that can be used when creating programs.

From the first stage, the time required to develop and stack up one by one has been reduced to just a few minutes with the help of these tools.

In addition, since it provides various functions for each platform and purpose, it can be developed without platform restrictions such as games, web, and apps.

So far, we have briefly explored the concepts of coding, programming languages, frameworks, libraries, APIs, and SDKs. Next time, we will learn about the coding study sequence.

① Next-generation industrial revolution through convergence of information and communication technology (ICT)

② Contact point for exchanging information or signals between two different systems and devices