Hi!

This is my first real blog :p

In this blog, I will try to teach you basic programming structure and tricks, and then talk a little about the programming language "Lua".

----Introduction----

Computers are wonderful machines, but they are not magic. They are just big electronic circuits. Normally, computers take some input, do something with it, and give an output. So for example, the computer can take the number 1 and 4 as input, add them and give the output 5. That is actually the basics of a computer. To tell the computer to do something, you have to program it. You do that by writing text in a way the computer can understand it.

Now this is the complicated part. It doesn't matter if you don't understand this. The text you write in a way the computer can understand it is called a Programming Language. And the text you write is, of course, called code. So you write code, and then the computer will transform the code in something it can truly understand, called Machine code. Machine code is diffrent for every type of computer, and is nearly impossible to understand since it is entirely composed of 1s and 0s. Nobody code in Machine code. Sometimes there are some Programming Languages that are converted into multiple languages before being converted into the Machine code the computer can understand. For example, the Programming Language Lua is first converted into the Programming Language "C". Then the "C" code is converted into machine code. The more times the Code is converted into another programming language, the more "High level" it is. and the less the code is converted into another programming languages, the more "Low level" it is.

----Coding Basics----

When you code, you will often be comparing two different things. So, to compare, you normally use the "if" word. So, you could code "if 1<2". But to tell the computer to do something if 1 is smaller than 2, you would use the "then" word. So you would code "if 1<2 then". You would then write what you want the computer to do if 1 is smaller than 2 on the next line.

----Variables----

In coding, you often use variables. Variables are stored in the RAM of the computer. The RAM is memory that can quickly be accessed. When you turn off your computer, or when you quit the program you are running, the RAM is cleared. RAM srands for "Random Access Memory". So back to variables, variables are single words that represent a value. So, you could code that tne letter "A" stands for the number "8". you would write this as "A = 8". You might be thinking "Wow, that is useless!", but it is useful! With variables, you ca store a number in memory (RAM), and then modify it easily (addition, substraction...). So, you could write "A = 8", and on the next line "A = A - 1". This tells the computer to take the value of A, which is 8, substract 1 from it, and then store the output of that equation (7) into the variable A.

To store letters into a variable, you must tell the computer that you are storing letters. To do this, you write " before and after tne letters. So, you would type: A = "Hello!"

----Arrays Tables and Lists----

Arrays are very complicated. Arrays, Lists and Tables are exactly the same thing. The words "Table" and "List" are often used to say "Array" in the Lua programming language. So, arrays (or tables, or lists) are basically Variables that contain multiple values. So, we could write that the variable A is equal to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Most languages have diffrent ways to tell the computer that we are writing an array. In the Lua programming language, you would write arrays in this manner: A = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }

Arrays are useful for making a list of things.

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So, these are the coding basics.

And by the way, I use the Lua programming language allot, it's neat. You can download it at lua.org, but I love using the Lua programming languages in Lua API. That means, in quite allot of games and applications, you can write codes that will affect, control or modify the game or application. My favorite game for this is called Bitfighter. You can write codes to make some robots, or even control levels and objects! Bitfighter is free and open-source, and works on Linux, Mac and Windows. To download, visit bitfighter.org. If you need help for coding in Bitfighter, go to bitfighter.org and click the button that says "Live Chat" in the top of the web site. You can write a username there (the name that other people will see, you do not need any type of account to do this) and after a few other options, click the button that says "Enter" or simular, wait a little, and you are in a group chat! People are always happy to answer questipns.

For people who know about IRC, the "Live Chat" on bitfighter.org is actually the IRC channel #bitfighter on the Freenode network.

So, now that you know the basics, start coding!

I might write another blog soon about coding in the Lua programming language.

Thankyou for reading!