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Hi. This is the introduction video for FunProgramming.

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A series of videos teaching creative programming.

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The idea is to learn to create animation and sounds by writing and playing with short programs.

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If you want to start learning immediately you can skip to the next video.

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In this one I'll just answer some questions.

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Who is this meant for?

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The idea here is to make you interested in creative programming.

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We start at the very beginning drawing one pixel to the screen.

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I'm assuming you don't know much about programming.

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If you're at least 10 years old you should be able to follow.

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If you're younger or want to try something even easier...

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... you might want to check out Scratch or Alice.

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Those are programming languages where you don't have to type the programs.

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You use the mouse instead.

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Why learn programming?

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I think it's useful to have an idea about how software is created because we're surround by software now.

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If you ever work with computers, knowing programming can make things easier for you at some point.

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For example: you can program inside Photoshop, Excel, 3DSMax or Live.

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Those are programs for editing photos, creating spreadsheets, doing 3D animation or making music.

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Programming is useful in many applications.

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But even if you just watch 5 or 10 episodes and you never try programming again...

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... you will at least have an idea of how programs are created.

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I think it would be good if we learned programming in school together with math.

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Because math is at times very abstract, but if you write programs ...

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... math becomes something you can play with.

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Math is no longer something you just need for an exam, but something you use to make music or sound ...

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... animations, computer games. So it's something you can see or hear.

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While programming you learn to find out what is the cause for certain behavior.

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So I think that in a way it teaches how to think!

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You wonder why something is happening. You do some tests and discover how it works using logic.

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I believe this can be quite useful.

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Why Processing?

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There are probably hundreds of programming languages.

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At least 10 or 20 are currently popular. Like Javascript, Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, C.

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Processing has some advantages.

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In Processing you can get started in just a few minutes.

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It's free software and it works on Linux, Windows and Mac.

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And it allows you to create interesting programs in just a few lines of code.

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That's a reason why it's often used for teaching.

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And also used by artists to create their work.

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The syntax in Processing is similar to other programming languages.

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The concepts used are the same. There's variables, loops, conditional statements...

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So it's a good language to get started and it shouldn't be hard to switch to another language later, if you want.

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I think at least at the beginning it should be simple and fun.

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Otherwise you may decide that programming is too complicated for you.

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Why create Fun Programming?

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I think education is basic to improve our lives and to solve problems in this planet.

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In many places education could be better than it is today...

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... and one time I started wondering: "Why aren't all our teachers as passionate as Carl Sagan?"

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So they could make us interested, make us wonder about things, make us think and ask questions.

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He was really good explaining science.

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I thought they could record such great communicators in video and show those in school...

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... together with interesting images.

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The students could then discuss things with teachers and other students.

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But there are laws, governments and business that make changes to the educative system flow...

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... then one day I heard about the Kahn Academy.

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It's a project that was started by one person recording many videos teaching math...

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... and millions of people were learning thanks to this.

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I thought this was great!

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Instead of trying to change the educative system, he was creating a new one.

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That anyone could access for free using the internet.

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This inspired me to try recording such videos myself.

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I have never done that before. So I spent two weeks learning how to do it.

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I was finding the right spot for the microphone. The right volume, screen recording software...

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... editing software. I discovered it's not so easy for me to convert thoughts into good explanations.

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Sometimes it sounded great when practicing, but then when I started recording I couldn't find the right words.

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That was in 2010.

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Somewhere I heard that if you do something for 21 days in a row it becomes automatic and much easier.

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So the last day of July 2011 I decided to record one video each day of August.

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I knew it would be difficult at first, but with time I would get better at it.

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So I did it... but I didn't stop at the end of August.

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There are now 65 episodes and almost 400 viewers everyday. So it's inspiring and I continue doing that.

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I really enjoy creating small programs that generate beautiful graphics and music.

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This is how I learned programming as a kid: doing experiments.

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Not trying to memorize things, but playing.

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Math then becomes fun and Science easier to understand.

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I hope I can transmit this way of learning to you at least a little bit.

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So thanks for watching and I wish you fun programming!