In my first post, I introduced myself as wanting to learn
about “technology” and “computer science.” Since then, I have come to realize
that these are pretty big terms and that perhaps I should have a more specific
goal.
Goal: learn a code.
When I presented this goal to some friends, the idea was met
with a lot of laughter, especially since I think I actually phrased it along
the lines of “going to learn the codes.” One friend helpfully suggested I take up crochet. After explaining that I already tried
that, unsuccessfully, I decided to forge ahead with the whole
codes-computer-science thing.
Having failed at crochet, I’m going to focus on the codes as my first
objective in this whole computer science adventure. What are they? To the best
of my understanding, they are languages that my minions use to talk to each
other. I do not yet understand why my minions need these languages, though.
Let’s take a look to see what I can figure out…
As you know, I am a fan of Googling my problems and filtering
the results by “trusted sources.” The following is from Wikipedia, the ultimate
in “trusted sources”:
In computer
science, source code is any
collection of computer
instructions (possibly with comments)
written using some human-readable
computer language,
usually as text. The
source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the work of
computer programmers, who
specifies the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source
code. The source code is often transformed by a compiler program into
low-level machine code
understood by the computer. The machine code might then be stored for execution at
a later time. Alternatively, an interpreter
can be used to analyze and perform the outcomes of the source code program
directly on the fly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code
Let’s break this down: the code is going to be stuff that
people write to explain to the computer what they want it to do. Then it has to
be changed around so that the machine can understand it. Then it can be saved for later. The last sentence I don’t understand so
I’ll ignore it for now. Done.
So far this meshes with my pre-existing knowledge of the
codes. I am, fortunately or unfortunately, old enough to remember when you had
to give computers fancy commands to get them to do stuff. There was this “other
side” of the computer that was a big black screen and it was like //:: and then
you had to use the right words and another /// or something or the computer
wouldn’t be able to flip back into your main menu screen which is how I remember
being able to play X-Wing. I think this coding thing is going to be a very
elaborate version of all that. No problem.
I put this in because it will lend some
credibility to my blog.
After all the codes-related laughter, I am feeling not
very credible.
However, I am pretty sure that computer people like reminiscing
about old computer stuff so here’s an emphatic “me too!” from 1993. Enjoy.
I also understand that these codes come in many different
permutations, called languages. And that people get very heated and opinionated
in their discussions of these languages. Please don’t get all fired up over
here on my blog, ‘cause it would be a waste of fire: I don’t know anything so
feel free to automatically win your argument by default.
Here are the languages I’ve found so far:
Holy balls there are so many languages.
I cannot list them all
because I can’t even understand how there are so many.
Let’s try that again...
Here
are the things floating around the huge lists that are compiled on Wikipedia
that stuck out to me because I recognized them:
BASIC
C++
JAVA
This one stuck out on the list because when I was out
discussing my blog, some people mentioned it and since it’s the name of an
animal, I still remembered it three Old Fashioneds later:
Python
These are things that I could not find in the Wikipedia “List
of programming languages by type” but I definitely think computer people talk
about them so I should probably figure them out too:
HTML
LINUX
Update: I searched these separately and it turns out LINUX is
an operating system, I guess like the Jaguars and Leopards that have lived on
my Mac over the years. I’m not ready for that yet. HTML said it was a language
though, so it can stay here on my list.
Ok, I have a small selection of languages that some people use to speak
with their minions. I don’t yet
know if my minions speak these particular languages but I’m feeling like progress was made
today. I think computer people
like coffee and since it’s too early for wine, I’m going to go with that for
now. Also cheese doesn’t go with
coffee, so a quick change-up to a granola bar. Sounds depressing.
I will add a yogurt and fruit to cheer me up.
This is not what my breakfast actually looks like.
It
is what I dream my breakfast would look like. Maybe next time.
