For this installment of "Adventures in Science," we’re taking a look at a few computer science topics, including: what a compiler does (in a broad scope), what is meant by sequential programming, and how to use a flow chart to diagram a program. Many of these concepts are difficult to explain without showing examples, which we will do using the Arduino programming language.
Arduino Control Flow
This video covers how an Arduino program executes sequentially and how it can be visualized in flowchart form. If you want to follow along, here’s an in-depth guide to installing the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Arduino Programming Syntax
In computer science, syntax is the set of rules for combining words, phrases, numbers and symbols to create correctly structured code in a programming language. This video looks at how languages such as C and C++ came about, what makes up identifiers, some keywords to avoid using as identifiers, as well as single line (//) and multiple line (/* */) comments and how they can be used to document code.
Arduino Data Types, Literals, and Variables
When writing code, knowing how to assign numbers and characters to variables in order to manipulate their values is incredibly important. However, in order to do so, you must also know how to use data types and literals. We’ve created a handy guide that covers the basics of data types in Arduino.
Arduino Arithmetic Operators
It’s time to look at arithmetic operators in Arduino that allow you to add, subtract, multiply and divide literals and variables. You can even create compound assignment operators using this reference guide from Arduino.
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