What is programming

Before we begin, we should answer the fundamental question why we even need programming in the first place. Programming is used to automate operations on a computer such as sending text messages over the internet or controlling the arms and legs of a robot. However, computers are highly sophisticated and complicated machines. To make it easier for us to tell the computer what to do, we can use a programming language such as Rouge. The programming language acts as an intuitive and human-readable way to instruct the computer what to do. It communicates with the computer on our behalf which allows us to focus on what we actually want to achieve by abstracting away a lot of technical details.

Now, let us look at how programming works. A program is a text file that the programming language executes line by line, top to bottom. This should feel familiar to you because humans communicate in the same way when they give instructions to each other. For instance, programming is a lot like writing a baking recipe.

The above recipe contains three lines, each of which contains an instruction. In programming, these instructions are referred to as statements. Exactly like in this baking recipe, each instruction in Rouge is placed in its own line. The following chapters will show you how to write these statements in Rouge and allow you to write your first program.