Key Things

• open a bracket or quote, it must be closed
• a block of code is stuff to be done one step at a time, but can be separated from other blocks of code
  • e.g. to separate commands to be executed if a test is positive vs if it is negative
• blocks of code are indicated by { <code stuff> }
• most lines need to end with a ; (except at the end of blocks- e.g. no semi-colon after a })
• there are some special language keywords that are instructions/commands; you can not use these words for variable names
  • see this list
• variables are named bits of memory that you can store (remember) some piece of info
  • variable names can’t be keywords
• variables are typed
  • eg int count = 0; count++ – count can only store integers
  • compiler will give you errors if you try accessing a variable with the wrong type
• comments are messages/reminders for you the programmer
  • for a single line, everything after // will be treated as a comment
  • for a single or multiple lines, everything between /* and */ will be ignored
• functions (methods/subroutines- slightly different but we’ll lump them together) are like sub-programs that you can jump to. Both stops needing to duplicate code, and keeps things organized and easier to read.

Don’t worry! We’ll be using pre-made examples!

References

• good list/overview of Arduino keywords and functions
• Arduino language reference
• Arduino playground
• Adafruit’s lessons
• ESP32 & Arduino Specific
  • Dronebot’s article
  • Random Nerd Tutorials article