Intro to Programming Languages 101, for Future Presidents

Working links:

• www.repl.it
• https://hackmd.io/JwFgHGwKYgRgtAJgGwEZj3AY1fWWAGDEZMVc1EAVkVlSA===
• github.com/epylinkn/itp-programming-languages

aka the "Language" in "Programming Languages"

The goal: Get better at the one programming language you care about most (and this might be different for everyone). Similar to how studying a foreign language in high school gave you a different context with which to evaluate your native tongue, we'll aim to expose you to other programming languages with the hopes that you'll understand all of them better.

In other words, learn to be more effective in ANY programming language! Together we'll compare language concepts between two or three different programming languages. In doing so, we'll learn about what composes a programming language. We'll touch upon:

1. History
2. Syntax
3. Semantics
4. Idioms
5. Libraries
6. Tools
7. Community

Regardless of what language you're looking to master, this session aims to take a step back to see how other languages work. We'll primarily dive into a language you're likely not familiar with: Ruby! For the most part, we'll compare with Javascript, but I promise to also sprinkle in some examples from other languages along the way.

It's a short session, so we'll keep the examples simple with the option to dive into more complexity at the end depending on interest.

Prerequisites:

• Aimed at the intermediate-level programmer with some experience in one or two programming languages
• But also valuable to any novice with some programming experience and an interest for more!

Tools:

• Laptop
• We'll use a few different tools to test our code in: terminal and a couple browser interpreters. Everything is built in so you won't need extra software.