The Most Powerful Programming Language of Our Time

Introduction:

The purpose behind programming languages is to foster greater depth of communication and control between the mechanical mind of the machine and the brain of the human. The most powerful language is the one most people prefer to use. This paper seeks to educate and inform the most powerful programming language of our time. The author was tasked with experimenting with a nascent programming version of Scratch and then describe the experience and how it compares with other experiences with other programming languages presented in the course.

Discussion:

The author of this paper utilized a free version of a Scratch and encountered a few difficulties. Scratch requires a learning curve for those not accustomed to object-based programming. With copious practice and a project-based focus on creating an animated sequence story, the author was able to produce an adequate animation product, but not without frustration and unforeseen time needs in order to complete the experiment. Scratch is an inherently clunky, limited and primitive “game” of a programming language, but it still teaches methodology, process and impact. The purpose of this focus on Scratch is a demonstration of the “teaching of the functions with Scratch focused on proposing

didactic alternatives. In this way, Scratch programming language is considered as a way to

build the reality.”(Gutiérrez, (2021) p.2)

Gamification is certainly an appealing method to gain acceptance and motivation for early programming lessons for users. The purpose of the lesson is the game and then the game becomes the lesson. For the purpose of andragogy, Cartesian coordinate systems calculations and other mathematical problem-solving exercises are possible.

EXAMPLE: Link to Scratch program: press the green flag to begin.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/679974303

Compared to some of the other programming language functions such as Machine, Assembly, High-level languages like (in order of popularity) Python, C, Java, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Javascript, etc.) Scratch is experientially focused. Machine and High-level languages need no such foci. The point though, as stated before, is to deepen the communication and understanding between machine and human – hence the name programming languages – wherein languages are meant to communicate not between humans to humans, but between humans and machines. Given that Scratch would seem to appeal to humans more than the so-called higher-level languages, it is not intuitive that according to the TIOBE Index, Scratch is not in the top 25 of most popular languages. It ranks lower than some languages like COBOL that have been around for decades.

 


Figure 1: Popularity of Programming Languages and historic trends. Tiobe.com

The author finds it amusing that in all the sci-fi movies wherein humans try to communicate with machinery run amok, they do not try to use Python or any other programming language. Instead, they use verbiage. It’s obvious that the movie directors don’t feel the need to address this point to their audience. But I digress. From the data above, it is clear that Python has become a dominant language among those who have a choice. Readability, writability and reliability are seen as key elements of a desired language in which to communicate, with Python and Java demonstrating the most user-friendly and reliable languages respectively.(Ahmed, 2021,p.6)

Conclusion:

The purpose behind this paper was to describe the most powerful language - the one most people prefer to use. This paper produced tangible and credible evidence that the most powerful programming language of our time is not the easiest one to manipulate, it’s the one that performs consistently and meshes with the human understanding of human-computer interface. With a project-based focus on accomplishment, Python accomplishes all four needs between computers and humans: ownership, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. (Fryderberg,2021,p.48).


References 

Authors: Ahmed, Z.; Kinjol, F.J.; Ananya, I.J. (2021). Comparative Analysis of Six Programming Languages Based on Readability, Writability, and Reliability,

2021 24th International Conference on Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT) Computer and Information Technology (ICCIT), 2021 24th International Conference on. :1-6 Dec, 2021

Gutiérrez, E.Q.; Llinares,  A.Z. (2021) Assessment of "Scratch" Programming Language as a Didactic Tool to Teach Functions, Education Sciences, v11 Article 499 2021. 18 pp.

Frydenberg, M.; Mentzer, K. (2021) From Engagement to Empowerment: Project-Based Learning in Python Coding Courses Information Systems Education Journal, v19 n3 p47-62 Jun 2021

TIOBE running real-time Index: https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index//

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all. zyBooks.

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