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Bridge Languages Such As “Scratch” Help You Think Like A Programmer
And that’s really the key.
A Computer-less math class taught me how to think about code
We don’t generally communicate with perfect logic in the day-to-day, often relying on linguistic shortcuts and inferring meanings. When programmers code, however, logic and clarity are necessary components of a functional script. In order to make a computer do something, you have to first know exactly what you’re telling it to do.
Even before I had real experience writing scripts, I took an extremely challenging math class in college called Discrete Mathematics, which was geared toward programmers. What made it so difficult was that it required me to learn how to think differently-with clear, unadulterated logic.
For example, I learned about the different conditions of “if” vs. “only if” vs. “if and only if.” These aren’t concepts that play out in daily dialogue, but the distinctions are vital when you’re writing code.
When I weigh all of my undergraduate classes, Discrete Math helped me understand how to think about code more than any other class I took, and I didn’t write a single script in that class.
whatever the programming language, one…
