The basics of any programming language

What do you need to know to write a program of decent usability in any programming language?

As programmers, Most commonly we use the following:

1. Input/Output Constructs
2. Variables
3. Loops
4. File operations 
5. Functions

These 5 features are paramount for knowing a programming language. You can write programs like:

1. Finding out if a number is prime
2. Finding out if a string is a palindrome
3.  Store data about students, employees et al. And retrieve them at a later time.

Just by knowing how to use these 5 features.

Thus, whenever you start learning any programming language always remember that you need to know these 5 features before you start coding really.

There are many more features to a programming language. The most common one today being "Objects, Instances, Classes, Structures". In real life, When we start writing programs for clients, then these become the major area of inerest. But now, when we are learning to code, they take a backseat and often amateurs question why we need these at all. I was in a similar confusion when I was first taught about these. But later when I did find out about their utility, which was  long way down the road, I found out that it is really impossible to code any good application without Objects or in general without Object Oriented Programming.

So, For the initial part of this course, we will be concentrating on the five features that I have told above. Then as we move on to complete them, we will get started with OOP, and we will take it from there.