What is Programming?

Programming is the skill of telling a computer exactly what to do, one clear step at a time.

Instructions, Like a Recipe

Think about how Ayesha's mother makes chai. She follows steps in order:

1. Boil water
2. Add tea leaves
3. Add milk and sugar
4. Boil again, then pour into cups

A computer program works the same way. It is a list of steps, and the computer follows them in order, from top to bottom. The big difference is that a computer does exactly what you write. If you forget a step, it will not guess. If you write a step in the wrong order, it will happily do it in the wrong order.

What is a Programming Language?

Computers do not understand Urdu or English. Deep inside, they only understand numbers. A programming language is a middle ground: it is easy enough for people to read and write, and strict enough for a computer to follow without confusion.

There are hundreds of languages. Some popular ones are:

In this tutorial we use Python and JavaScript, because they are friendly for beginners and used everywhere.

Your First Program

The classic first program just shows a message on the screen.

In Python, you use print():

print("Hello, World!")
print("I am learning to code.")

Hello, World!
I am learning to code.

In JavaScript, you use console.log():

console.log("Hello, World!");
console.log("I am learning to code.");

Hello, World!
I am learning to code.

Each line is one instruction. The text inside the quotes is called a string. The computer shows it exactly as written.

Code, Programs and Programmers

A few words you will hear a lot:

• Code: the text you write in a programming language
• Program: a complete set of code that does a job, like a calculator
• Programmer or developer: a person who writes code
• Run or execute: asking the computer to follow your code
• Output: what the program shows or produces

Comments: Notes for Humans

Sometimes you want to write a note in your code that the computer should ignore. This is called a comment.

# This line is a comment. Python skips it.
print("Shop is open")  # a comment can also go here

// This line is a comment. JavaScript skips it.
console.log("Shop is open"); // a comment can also go here

Shop is open

Python comments start with #. JavaScript comments start with //. Good comments explain why you wrote something, so you (or a classmate) can understand it later.

Where Can You Run Code?

You do not need anything special to start:

• Python: install it from python.org, or use a free online Python editor
• JavaScript: every web browser already has it. In Chrome, press F12 and open the Console tab to type JavaScript

Exercise