Blog Post #1 – Programming Languages

Title: Learning to Program: My Experience with Scratch and Beyond

When I first began programming with Scratch, I quickly realized that coding is not just about typing commands into a computer—it’s about learning to think logically and creatively at the same time. Scratch made it easy to visualize how programs run because every command is represented by colorful blocks that snap together like puzzle pieces. This gave me a clear sense of how instructions are ordered and executed, which was especially helpful as a beginner.

One challenge I faced while creating my project was figuring out how to control movement and timing. At first, my animations didn’t run smoothly, but by experimenting with loops and timing blocks, I was able to refine the flow. This problem-solving process helped me gain confidence in debugging and taught me that trial and error is a natural part of programming.

Through this exercise, I learned that Scratch is very different from traditional languages. For example, machine language uses binary (0s and 1s) that communicate directly with the hardware, which is powerful but not practical for most users. Assembly language is slightly easier, using text-based instructions, but it still requires detailed knowledge of computer architecture. High-level languages like Python are much more user-friendly, allowing programmers to write code in a way that looks almost like human language. Compared to Scratch, Python requires typing syntax rather than dragging blocks, but it offers far greater flexibility.

From my perspective, Python is the easiest high-level language to use, especially for beginners, because of its simple and readable commands. Machine language is most effective when absolute speed and efficiency are needed, such as in embedded systems. Assembly language is still useful in low-level programming for hardware interaction. Scratch is effective for teaching logic and creativity to new programmers.

Overall, I believe Python is the most popular programming language today because it is versatile, widely taught, and used in everything from web development to artificial intelligence. My experience with Scratch gave me the foundation to understand how all programming languages share a common goal: turning human instructions into something a computer can understand.