The fundamentals.
WHAT IT IS
A formal notation for instructing a computer, designed to be written and read by people.
WHAT EVERY LANGUAGE PROVIDES
A way to store values A way to make decisions A way to repeat work A way to group instructions into reusable units A way to organise larger programs
WHY THEY DIFFER
They make different trade-offs between speed of writing, speed of running, safety, and control.
WHAT NO LANGUAGE ACHIEVES
All of those simultaneously.
WHAT THAT MEANS
Language arguments are usually about which trade-offs matter for a particular problem.
WHAT SYNTAX IS
The rules of how code is written.
WHAT SEMANTICS IS
What the code means when it runs.
WHY THAT DISTINCTION MATTERS
Languages with similar syntax can behave very differently.
WHAT TRANSFERS BETWEEN LANGUAGES
Concepts: variables, control flow, functions, data structures, error handling.
WHAT DOES NOT
Syntax, libraries and conventions.
WHAT THAT MEANS FOR LEARNING
The second language is far easier than the first.
