Welcome!

Welcome to Cratecode! Before you can learn to code, we'll need to get you introduced to how Cratecode works, and most importantly, how you'll learn with it.

To preface, I'd like to explain how to effectively learn with Cratecode. Of course, you should fully read and complete every lesson for what you're learning, but you should also take a look at the code examples stored in each of these lessons. You'll find a file called index.js in the file explorer, and a run button to run it. You'll notice that it prints some text into the console below. After you've gone through this document, I highly encourage you to try running the code, and mess around with it a bit. See if you can make it do something different.

First, take a look around. Right now, you're in the editor (a place where you'll probably spend most of your time). The editor provides everything you'll need to write programs. In the top-right, you'll see the text editor, and below it, the terminal (also called console). Try playing around with it. If you don't get it, or haven't seen a terminal before, not to worry — we'll cover everything you'll need to know in the next few sections.

Finally, the window you're reading in right now is called the Toolbox. It has quite a few helpful features, but the two we'll focus on right now are the info panel and file manager. The info panel is what you're in right now, and to access the file manager, click on the folder icon. Inside you'll see a tree-map showing all the files that exist, along with options to create, delete, rename, and move them. Try messing around with it and come back when you're done.

Come back here

Now that you've seen the basics of Cratecode's editor, let's try editing something. Inside the file manager, you'll notice a README.md file, which is actually what you're reading now. The .md means that it's a Markdown file, which, put simply, is a text file document that looks good when reading it in a text editor, in addition to a rendered version (like the one you're reading right now). Try opening it and messing around, you can even change what's displayed here!

Now, you should be familiar with how to navigate Cratecode, open/create files, and possibly use the terminal. Now that we have the tools to do so, let's learn to code!