Computing- Programming with small basic Year 8 /Spring term 1

Key Word Definition Example

Program A set of instructions that a computer

can understand An Application on a phone

Programming

language

A specially written code used for

writing applications Scratch, Small Basic, Python

Intellisense The inbuilt list that helps complete

Small basic commands

Commands Special words that are instructions for

the computer to do something Writeline ()

Output Display text on a screen TextWindow.Writeline (“Hello World”)

Input Read in a value- normally stored in a

variable Name =TextWindow.Read ()

Variable Assigning a value to a location in

memory- given a meaningful name UserName, Age, Answer

Statement

A single line of code with commands-

Could be either for a property or an

operation

TextWindow.Writeline (“Hello World”)

Property A statement that changes the way the

window looks TextWindow.Title “My First Program”

Operation A statement that carries out an action Area = length *width

Condition

to test a variable against a value and

act in one way if the condition is met by

the variable or another way if not.

If weekday = "Y" Or weekday = "y" Then TextWindow.WriteLine("Sorry it's a school day, time to get up")

EndIf

For Loop A loop FOR when we know how many

times to repeat Drawing a regular shape

While loop A loop that continues WHILE a

condition has or has not been met

Reading through a list that

might be different lengths

every time

GoTo A branching statement that sends you

to a different section of code

Return to the beginning of a

menu or make a program run

again

In your own Year 8 Computing Folder, create a new folder and call it 2. Programming with Small Basic This is where you will save your worksheets and programs during the unit Small basic is a programming language that bridges between visual coding like Scratch and text based languages like Python. Small Basic provides you with an extremely simple yet powerful development environment with features like instant context-sensitive help.

OUTPUT To output a line of text on the screen we use the TextWindow.Write(“Text to show”) or TextWindow.Writeline(“Text to show”) INPUT To read in data to a variable and store it for use in the program Name =TextWindow.Read ()

STATEMENTS, PROPERTIES AND OPERATIONS When you give an instruction to the computer, you create a statement. You can write a program by creating just one statement or by creating two or more statements in a particular sequence. Your statements can include either Properties or Operations

We add comments to code, so that we can understand our code, or other programmers understand what we are trying to do. Small Basic uses a single apostrophe (‘) at the beginning of the line- Comments then appear in green, but do not appear in the running code

You should always start variable names with a letter.

You can use letters, digits, and underscores in the names of your variables.

You should name your variables so that they describe the values that they store.

When you name your variables, you should not include certain reserved words, such as If, For, and Then.

CONDITIONS- IF THEN/ELSE

To create code where the program chooses which option to follow we use an IF statement to check a condition: IF Condition to be checked THEN Do this Statement if true ELSE Do this statement if false ENDIF

When you write a program, you can specify as many conditions as you want by using the ElseIf keyword. You check through a set of options and the program will carry out the first one it comes to that is True

In this example, when the computer evaluates a statement as true, the computer performs the operation for that condition and then proceeds to the end. NOTE: They have to be in a LOGICAL sequence for it to work (Low – High or High – Low)

LOOPS

In general, you use a For..EndFor loop to run code a specific number of times. To manage this type of loop, you create a variable that tracks how many times the loop has to run.

BRANCHING

Sometimes, you may want the computer to break the flow and jump to another line of code while the program is running.

You can also use the Goto statement to make a program run forever.