Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Introduction to Computer Programming



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Computer programming is the process of creating instructions and codes using a computer to make an executable programs or software which the computer will understand and execute to meet a desired result. A person who has the ability to create computer programs is called a "programmer". Most programmers are Information Technology graduates. The 90% of their curriculum is based on computer software and hardware, troubleshooting, analyzing, problem solving etc.

















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What are the characteristics of good programmer?

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 To be a good programmer, you need to have a good analyzing skills which will help you to solve problems. Other students which are good in Mathematics can easily excel in this kind of field because math is a matter of problem solving and analyzation. Abstract reasoning and logical thinking skills can also be a plus to a better programmer because this kind thinking can help you to easily understand a specific problem and plan to create a proper solution because programming is a matter of problem solving.


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Programming Languages

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Programming language is a software used by programmers to create their own programs on their computers. Using this, programs can be developed in different Operating systems like windows, linux, ubuntu and other existing O.S depending software's compatibility. Lots of programming languages are now existing and can be used depending on the programmers expertise. See below for example of commonly used programming languages:

a). Java
         


           - is a common and widely used programming language which owned by Sun Microsystems that is now used by programmers to create different useful applications in either computer or cellphones. Today, in our modern civilization, java is the main platform behind the creation of mobile operating systems like Android and IOS.





b) C#
                          - an object oriented (class based) programming        language that is developed by Microsoft Corporation. C# is a simple yet modern programming language that is built from syntax of C++.









c) Visual Basic 6.0
                         - another programming language from Microsoft that grown around year 2000. An object oriented programming language that does not require a higher computer specs because its interface is classic not compared to higher version of visual basic.





d) Visual Basic .Net
                         - the latest version of Visual basic which requires .net Framework for the user to execute the programs that has been created on this programming language. This version has a newer interface and new way to execute codes more robust than the previous visual basic versions.







e) Python
      - one of the highly used programming language because of its powerful code execution. Other programmers preferred python because they can easily express concepts with fewer lines of codes. Python supports object oriented and procedural programming.






Images Source(s) : csee.umbc.edu; integralwebsolutions.co.za ; ipeek.com ; ultimateprogrammingtutorials.Info; upload.wikimedia.org


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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Databases

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Database is used by programmers together with the programming languages that they are using to store data or information which are typically organized for the user of the program to make it easy for them to retrieve such information about a specific entity, for example, data of every student in a particular school. Data inside a database can either be updated, added or deleted depending on the database operator or a specific user of the program. Database are commonly used by programmers who develops Information Systems such as enrollment system, library system, attendance record system and other system which needs saving of records and transactions. See below for example of commonly used databases:

a). Oracle Database

                - Often called as Oracle RDBMS, a database management system developed by Oracle Corporation that is written in assembly language, C and C++. Oracle database stores data in the form of data and tablespaces which contains data dictionaries.



b). MySQL

                - One of the most commonly used database today which  ranked as top 2 among the other databases. MySQL is an open-source relational database management system, meaning it is free of charge when used by the developer/programmer because it is available under the terms of the General Public License. MySQL  has a lot of features that has user friendly interface such as their Query browsers, Workbench and Migration tools which help the user to transfer data from supported database into MySQL.




c). Microsoft SQL Server

                 - A relational web hosting database developed by Microsoft Corporation which is merely the same as other database management system which has the ability to hold and store large amount of data. MySQL is widely used as data storage of different websites. Although unlike MySQL, this product is not free but it has a lot of advance features that will suite the needs of every developer who prefer to used this product.




d.) Microsoft Acess

                - A relational database by Microsoft that commonly uses by standalone programs or programs which doesn't rely on another server while retrieving data. Lots of object oriented programming may suite on using this kind of database for creating application softwares which can also referenced different objects such as Data Access Objects (DAO). Its own format on storing data is based on the Access Jet Database Engine. Access may also came in handy in by direct linking data which is stored on other databases and applications.








Image Source(s): computertrainingcenterscom; computertrainingcenters.com; objcsharp.wordpress.com; softicons.com
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Mobile Phone Programming

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Computer software programming are too mainstream when we talk about programming itself. Different programmers uses different programming languages which they can create computer programs for their business, jobs etc. Today, in our modern living, portable gadgets are now uses operating systems like what computer uses. The most common and widely used is our mobile phones. Not only for texting and calling purposes our cellphones has to deliver to us. By the use of mobile phone operating systems, we can now play videos, music and 3D games which just a matter of clicks on its keypad and screen. From a simple mobile phone, it is now evolved on what we called "smart phones". A lot of smartphones supports touchscreen which allow the users to use their own cellphone lcd screen to type characters or to hit a button displayed on the screen. Please see below the widely used mobile phone operating systems:


a) IOS

         - A mobile phone operating system developed by Apple corporation and was released on the year 2007. IOS designed on cellphones for direct manipulation using screen touching of every mobile phone. Different stroke and gestures are being supported by this operating system such as swipe, drag, pinch tap etc. Another main feature is that the user can create an event on their mobile phone by simply shaking the body of their smart phone which sends information to the operating system and create a specific for what the shaking supposed to do after the user do so. Year 2013, new version of IOS was release which is the IOS 7. The latest version requires 1.5 gigabyte of device memory to be successfully installed.



b). Android

         - A mobile phone operating system developed by Google which is the same as IOS that is designed  for touchscreen mobile interface. Android was released on the year 2008 which first used by HTC. Because android is under the Apache License, meaning , it can be modified and be distributed without risk on the side of the manipulator of the software. In the same year of 2013 became a good year for different cellphone applications to be created. Lots application running in Android OS has been created and distributed. Other applications are downloadable in other sites and some are handled by Google with their google playstore.





c) Windows Phone

           - A mobile operating system developed by Microsoft corporation which was launched on year 2010. The operating system supports touchscreen gestures and shaking of its whole body. It was quickly developed so that it can be on the market as early as possible. Windows phone has a  backward compatibility issues and may need to be fixed as early as possible. Windows 7 is their first release and windows 8 is their latest which uses their Nokia Lumia as the main operating system.

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Creating your first VB.NET Project.

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This will tutorial will guide you to create your first visual basic.net window form application. Assuming that you had already installed Visual Basic .Net versions on your machine. In this lesson, I will used the latest version of Visual Studio, VB.Net 2013.


1. Open your Microsoft Visual Studio IDE by clicking the start button>all programs>navigate your installed version of visual studio.


2. Once the program loaded successfully on your screen, click File>New>Project.


3. A dialog box will appear which contains different programming languages include on visual studio.


4. On the left side, click Visual Basic>Windows and choose "Windows Form Application" and hit OK.

5. After the loading screen, you first form will appear. In this state, try to drag and drop different controls in the left side into your form and start exploring. Buttons, textboxes, menus, option button and checkboxes are the sample of the controls you can find on the toolboxes.


6. After exploring different buttons, click the ">" icon to start running your first window form application. Or just hit F5 for the shortcut.

7. You have now your first simple window form application.

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Monday, February 24, 2014

VB.NET coding tutorial using "Buttons"

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Buttons contains a lot of events that you can create instruction that the button will do after those events has been established. Such buttons events are the mouse hover, mouse click,  double click, gotfocus and so on.

Let's try the:

"Click" event
         - This tutorial will guide you to create a simple Message Box after clicking a specific button inside the form.

1. Open your visual studio 2013 and create a project.

2. On the default form shown, just try do drag a button for the toolbox menu.

3. Double click the button.

4. You will be located on the source code of your program on where you will type your codes.

5. This time, you will see the code like :

                Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
                         
                End Sub
6. Between those 2 lines of codes you will enter the code that generate a simple message box.

7. Declare a string variable that will handle the message text that will be put on our Message Box. To declare a variable in visual basic, you need to state the word "Dim" before the variable and its datatype. For example:

                 Dim messageVar as String

7. The word "messageVar" is our variable. You can use different words as your variable depending on what you prefer to use. The word "String" is our variable's data type. Data type can be integer, date, byte, long, double, but now ,we will use string for the reason that we need to create a message within a message box.

8. After declaring a variable, we need to assign value that our variable will handle. We declare a string variable so we need to assign a simple string/text message. We will do it like this:

                 Dim messageVar as String = "Hello World"
                                            or
                 Dim messageVar as String
                 messageVar = "Hello Word"

We can assign a value before or after the main declaration of the varialble.

9. To create a Message Box, we used the syntax "MsgBox()" like this:
                 MsgBox(messageVar)

10. As you will notice we put our variable inside the parenthesis because that will be the message that our messagebox will show. Then your done, your final source should be like this:
                 Dim messageVar as String
                 messageVar = "Hello Word"
                 MsgBox(messageVar)


11. Run the program by hitting F5 and push the button inside the form.



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