Text Based Programming

Summary

DAT-1: The way a computer represents data internally is different from the way the data are interpreted and displayed for the user. Programs are used to translate data into a representation more easily understood by people.

DAT-1.A.5: Abstraction is the process of reducing complexity by focusing on the main idea. By hiding details irrelevant to the question at hand and bringing together related and useful details, abstraction reduces complexity and allows one to focus on the idea.

Explain abstraction.
Share levels of abstraction example with machine code vs. text code vs. block code.
Discuss the difference between block-based and text-based programming languages.

Discuss text-based programming options in MakeCode Arcade.
Guide students through the process of creating the Lemon Leak game in JavaScript.

Ask students to share their thoughts about the following questions:
- What did you notice as you worked in JavaScript?
- What was different than working in blocks?
- What happened as you typed?
- Did you have any misspellings? What happened?
Confirm what students likely found - typos interfere with the functionality of the program.
Students will, therefore, need to learn to rely on the problems alert and red squiggly line cues as a guide for finding errors.