Guides:Intro to Programming - Revision history

Usr c0fd3826-5fbd-465b-869b-142f974af714: Simplify SDK category.

2026-04-16T01:00:54Z

Simplify SDK category.

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	[[Category:Guides]]		[[Category:Guides]]
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	[[Category:~~VRCSDK~~]]		[[Category:SDK]] <!-- probably not needed -->

Usr 8ee44c1a-f905-4e08-bb61-e1cd34e09fc0: Stubbed article; Category:Needs images, Category:VRCSDK

2026-04-15T07:50:26Z

Stubbed article; Category:Needs images, Category:VRCSDK

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:50, 15 April 2026
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	== About this guide ==		== About this guide ==
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	[[Category:Guides]]		[[Category:Guides]]
			[[Category:Needs images]]
			[[Category:VRCSDK]]

Usr 10dfc7a4-e2ed-4929-8eed-533830eced51: I reworded a lot of things and added sections that explain everything from running assembly up to high-level programming languages.

2025-01-06T04:48:45Z

I reworded a lot of things and added sections that explain everything from running assembly up to high-level programming languages.

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:48, 6 January 2025
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	==== Silicon to Transistors ====		==== Silicon to Transistors ====
	Silicon is a '''semi-conductor''' -- a material that isn't a conductor and isn't an insulator, but somewhere in between. We can nudge the conductivity of silicon one way or another by mixing it with other materials (known as doping<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor)</ref>) or by placing it in the electric field of a nearby charged piece of metal (known as the field effect<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_(semiconductor)</ref>).		Silicon is a '''semi-conductor''' -- a material that isn't a conductor and isn't an insulator, but somewhere in between.

	A transistor is a tiny microscopic device ~~made from semi-conductors~~ that ~~utilize doping and~~ the field effect to ~~turn circuits on and off within your CPU~~. ~~For example~~, you ~~can dope~~ the ~~silicon within~~ a transistor to ~~make~~ it ~~not~~ conductive so that ~~it blocks~~ the ~~flow~~ of ~~electricity~~ through ~~a circuit. Then when you want~~ to ~~use that circuit, you would use~~ the ~~field effect~~ to ~~make~~ the ~~silicon conductive again~~. ~~Here is a diagram showing how that'd work:~~		There are two ways to nudge the conductivity of silicon one way or another:

			# By mixing it with other materials (known as doping<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor)</ref>).
			# By placing it in the electric field of a nearby charged piece of metal (known as the field effect<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_(semiconductor)</ref>).

			If you apply an electric current to a pure silicon wafer and dope it so that some of it is more conductive is more than other parts, the electric current will only travel through the slightly more conductive parts because it's the path of least resistance. CPU manufacturers take advantage of this phenomenon to essentially print out a maze of pathways that electricity can take through your CPU, and then they add transistors to control which pathways are opened or closed.

			A transistor is a tiny microscopic device that utilizes the field effect to change the conductivity of a piece of silicon. Doping changes silicon's conductivity by adding materials that have either too many or too few free electrons. If you place an electric charge next to this piece of silicon, the electric field from the charge will either attract or repel the free electrons and you will be able to temporarily change the amount of free electrons.

			The diagram below shows a transistor that was doped to be non-conductive, but the electric charge applied to the top part known as the "gate" makes it conductive again. You can also make transistors that do the reverse. You can think of it as opening and closing a gate to allow a current through and some transistors default to the closed state and some transistors default to the open state.

	[[File:Transistor-diagram-with-rats.gif\|1920x1080px\|frameless\|Diagram of a transistor using the field effect to change its conductivity. The charges in the diagram are represented with rats.]]		[[File:Transistor-diagram-with-rats.gif\|1920x1080px\|frameless\|Diagram of a transistor using the field effect to change its conductivity. The charges in the diagram are represented with rats.]]

	The above example shows a transistor whose default state is '''off''', but you can also make transistors whose default state is '''on''', meaning they only conduct electricity when there's no charge applied.

	==== Transistors to Computers ====		==== Transistors to Computers ====
	[[File:AMD3500X pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]		[[File:AMD3500X pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]

	There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard; some are input pins, and some are output pins. A computer ~~performs an action by apply~~ electrical currents to some of the input pins. ~~These electrical~~ currents travel through the CPU, ~~sometimes flipping a transistor~~ to ~~change~~ the ~~course~~ of a ~~neighboring electrical current~~, ~~sometimes coming~~ to a ~~dead end~~, and ~~sometimes coming out~~ the ~~other side on~~ an ~~output pin~~.		There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard; some are input pins, and some are output pins. Every CPU cycle, your computer applies electrical currents to some combination of the input pins at the same time. A portion of these input pins will connect to transistors that will open or close some pathways through your CPU. The currents from the remaining input pins will then travel along these pathways and come out through an output pin.

			This was an immensely simplified explanation. In reality, the pathways have a million different branches and each pin toggles a bunch of different transistors that affect all of its neighbors. Modern CPUs have billions of transistors switching between a massive amount of different circuits that all serve different purposes.

			=== Computer Instructions ===
			The combination of input pins that get lit up each cycle is determined by the instruction being executed. Computer instructions have two parts: the opcode and the operand.

			The opcode (operation code) tells the CPU what kind of operation to perform. The operand provides the data for the operation.

			For example, the instruction for adding two numbers would be the opcode for addition, followed by the binary value of the two numbers you want to add. The electrical signals of the opcode will activate precisely the correct transistors to route the electrical signals of the operand to the addition circuit and to route the electrical signals of the resulting answer to the output pins.

			There's a unique opcode for every math operation as well as operations like sending commands to your GPU or accessing memory. You can see a complete list of all the opcodes for x86 CPUs on their [[wikipedia:X86_instruction_listings\|Wikipedia page]].

			Opcodes are typically expressed in binary or hexadecimal, but a slightly more human-readable format is assembly. The wikipedia page I linked to shows the equivalent assembly instruction under the "Instruction" column. For example, the assembly for addition is "ADD".

			==== Computer Cycles ====
			Your CPU is constantly running what's known as the fetch-execute cycle. There is a memory address register (MAR) which holds the memory address of a specific instruction in RAM. Every cycle, your computer fetches the instruction from that address in RAM, executes it, and then increments the address by one. The CPU is essentially just blindly executing each instruction one after another in a linear fashion unless one of the instructions edits the value of the MAR.

			If you string together the correct sequence of instructions, you get an algorithm. And if you combine enough algorithms you get a whole computer program.

			=== Programming Languages ===
			CPUs only understand raw binary instructions, and all code that you write has to get translated to binary before it can be run.

			Assembly is what is known as a low-level language. That means it's only a short hop away from raw binary and requires very minimal translation. Some people don't even consider it a programming language because it's essentially a one-to-one mapping of binary opcodes and operands. You can write entire programs in assembly -- that's how Roller Coaster tycoon was made -- However, most programmers find assembly too difficult to work with.

			Instead, most programmers choose to write their programs with higher-level languages. The higher the level, the closer the language is to "natural language" which are languages like English or Japanese. Very high-level languages provide a lot of tools (that we'll take a look at later) that make expressing abstract ideas easier and mistakes less likely.

	~~Modern CPUs have billions of transistors switching between~~ a ~~massive amount~~ of ~~different circuits~~ that ~~all~~ perform ~~different actions~~.		However, all this comes at a cost. These languages either need to be compiled to assembly/binary ahead of time or require an interpreter program that can perform the translation on the fly. And this translation layer adds overhead. This typically means that the further you get from writing raw binary, the slower your code runs.

	~~=== Software ===~~		Udon is the language that VRChat uses and it requires several layers of translation. When you make an UdonSharp script or an UdonGraph asset, an accompanying Udon Sharp Program Asset gets created.
	~~The input~~ is ~~known as~~ the ~~instruction and usually has two parts: the opcode~~ and ~~the operand. The opcode, short for operation code, tells the CPU what kind~~ of ~~operation to perform~~. The operand is the data that the opcode works with. For example, if the opcode is for adding two numbers and saving the result to a CPU register, the transistors that control the addition circuit will activate, ~~as well as the circuit that leads to saving the output to the specified register. The operand is then routed through the pathway that just opened up~~.

	~~<TODO>~~		That asset holds the compiled assembly of your script, but these assembly instructions don't get executed on your CPU, they're executed on a virtual CPU -- the Udon virtual machine. The virtual machine can do some calculations itself, but most instructions are going to be translated to C# which has its own interpreter.
	~~binary ->~~ assembly -~~> code~~ -~~> natural language~~

	~~=== Compiling~~ and ~~Running code ===~~		More information on how UdonSharp works can be found in [https://creators.vrchat.com/worlds/udon/vm-and-assembly/ the official docs].
	~~<TODO>~~

	== Structure of an UdonSharp script ==		== Structure of an UdonSharp script ==

Usr 10dfc7a4-e2ed-4929-8eed-533830eced51 at 22:24, 28 December 2024

2024-12-28T22:24:06Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:24, 28 December 2024
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	==== Transistors to Computers ====		==== Transistors to Computers ====
	There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard. Some are input pins, and some are output. Each CPU cycle, a specific pattern of input pins lights up, opening and closing different circuits inside the CPU. The electric current then races through the CPU, eventually exiting on a specific pattern of output pins.

	[[File:AMD3500X pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]		[[File:AMD3500X pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]

	~~Let's imagine that I was a CPU manufacturer who wanted to make a computer chip that only had one function: to tell if a number was 69 or not. I have~~ a bunch of CPU pins and ~~two types of transistors that I can attach to the~~ pins~~: type '''~~A~~''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has a~~ electrical ~~charge, and type '''B''' which only opens~~ the ~~circuit when the pin has no charge~~.		There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard; some are input pins, and some are output pins. A computer performs an action by apply electrical currents to some of the input pins. These electrical currents travel through the CPU, sometimes flipping a transistor to change the course of a neighboring electrical current, sometimes coming to a dead end, and sometimes coming out the other side on an output pin.

	~~The binary representation for 69 is 1000101, so if I put all my transistors on~~ the ~~same circuit~~, ~~and then arranged~~ the ~~type A's and type B's like ABBBABA~~, ~~then I'd have a chip that detects the number 69.~~

	~~It's just as easy~~ to ~~make~~ a ~~circuit that detects two numbers~~ and ~~outputs their sum. Repeat that for all combinations of two numbers and I have a chip that performs addition.~~

	~~I can then make another circuit for performing subtraction and then have a special~~ pin ~~switch between which circuit is active~~.

	Modern CPUs have billions of transistors switching between a massive amount of different circuits that all perform different actions.		Modern CPUs have billions of transistors switching between a massive amount of different circuits that all perform different actions.

Usr 8ee44c1a-f905-4e08-bb61-e1cd34e09fc0: Usr 8ee44c1a-f905-4e08-bb61-e1cd34e09fc0 moved page Community:Intro to Programming to Guides:Intro to Programming: Moved to new Guides: namespace.

2024-12-05T23:42:56Z

Usr 8ee44c1a-f905-4e08-bb61-e1cd34e09fc0 moved page Community:Intro to Programming to Guides:Intro to Programming: Moved to new Guides: namespace.

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:42, 5 December 2024
(No difference)

Usr 578aa632-439b-4c41-9266-776323ba9ad2: Text replacement - "Noticebox2" to "Noticebox"

2024-11-19T16:48:04Z

Text replacement - "Noticebox2" to "Noticebox"

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:48, 19 November 2024
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	== Computer Science 101 ==		== Computer Science 101 ==
	=== Hardware ===		=== Hardware ===
	{{~~Noticebox2~~		{{Noticebox
	\|image=CautionTriangle.png		\|image=CautionTriangle.png
	\|title=Simplified Explanation Ahead		\|title=Simplified Explanation Ahead

Usr 578aa632-439b-4c41-9266-776323ba9ad2 at 12:22, 19 November 2024

2024-11-19T12:22:53Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:22, 19 November 2024
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	== Computer Science 101 ==		== Computer Science 101 ==
	=== Hardware ===		=== Hardware ===
	{{~~Noticebox~~		{{Noticebox2
	\|image=CautionTriangle.png		\|image=CautionTriangle.png
	\|title=Simplified Explanation Ahead		\|title=Simplified Explanation Ahead
	\|~~message~~=You don't need to know how CPU chips work to write code so I'm going to be simplifying all my explanations to get through it as quickly as possible.		\|description=You don't need to know how CPU chips work to write code so I'm going to be simplifying all my explanations to get through it as quickly as possible.
	}}		}}

Usr c0fd3826-5fbd-465b-869b-142f974af714: added guides category

2024-09-11T18:06:42Z

added guides category

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:06, 11 September 2024
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	=== Optimization ===		=== Optimization ===
	<TODO>		<TODO>

			[[Category:Guides]]

Usr 10dfc7a4-e2ed-4929-8eed-533830eced51 at 05:28, 11 September 2024

2024-09-11T05:28:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:28, 11 September 2024
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	There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard. Some are input pins, and some are output. Each CPU cycle, a specific pattern of input pins lights up, opening and closing different circuits inside the CPU. The electric current then races through the CPU, eventually exiting on a specific pattern of output pins.		There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard. Some are input pins, and some are output. Each CPU cycle, a specific pattern of input pins lights up, opening and closing different circuits inside the CPU. The electric current then races through the CPU, eventually exiting on a specific pattern of output pins.

	[[File:~~CPU-~~pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]		[[File:AMD3500X pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]

	Let's imagine that I was a CPU manufacturer who wanted to make a computer chip that only had one function: to tell if a number was 69 or not. I have a bunch of CPU pins and two types of transistors that I can attach to the pins: type '''A''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has a electrical charge, and type '''B''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has no charge.		Let's imagine that I was a CPU manufacturer who wanted to make a computer chip that only had one function: to tell if a number was 69 or not. I have a bunch of CPU pins and two types of transistors that I can attach to the pins: type '''A''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has a electrical charge, and type '''B''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has no charge.

Usr 10dfc7a4-e2ed-4929-8eed-533830eced51 at 05:04, 11 September 2024

2024-09-11T05:04:10Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:04, 11 September 2024
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	{{Noticebox/Community}}		{{Noticebox/Community}}
	{{Noticebox/wip}}		{{Noticebox/wip}}
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	== Computer Science 101 ==		== Computer Science 101 ==
	=== Hardware ===		=== Hardware ===
	==== Transistors ====		{{Noticebox
	Silicon is a '''semi-conductor''' -- a material that isn't a conductor and isn't an insulator, but somewhere ~~on the fence~~. We can nudge the conductivity of silicon one way or another by mixing it with other materials (known as doping<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor)</ref>) or by placing it in the electric field of a nearby charged piece of metal (known as the field effect<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_(semiconductor)</ref>).		\|image=CautionTriangle.png
			\|title=Simplified Explanation Ahead
			\|message=You don't need to know how CPU chips work to write code so I'm going to be simplifying all my explanations to get through it as quickly as possible.
			}}

			==== Silicon to Transistors ====
			Silicon is a '''semi-conductor''' -- a material that isn't a conductor and isn't an insulator, but somewhere in between. We can nudge the conductivity of silicon one way or another by mixing it with other materials (known as doping<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor)</ref>) or by placing it in the electric field of a nearby charged piece of metal (known as the field effect<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_(semiconductor)</ref>).

	A transistor is a tiny microscopic device made from semi-conductors that utilize doping and the field effect to turn circuits on and off within your CPU. For example, you can dope the silicon within a transistor to make it not conductive so that it blocks the flow of electricity through a circuit. Then when you want to use that circuit, you would use the field effect to make the silicon conductive again. Here is a diagram showing how that'd work:		A transistor is a tiny microscopic device made from semi-conductors that utilize doping and the field effect to turn circuits on and off within your CPU. For example, you can dope the silicon within a transistor to make it not conductive so that it blocks the flow of electricity through a circuit. Then when you want to use that circuit, you would use the field effect to make the silicon conductive again. Here is a diagram showing how that'd work:
Line 17:		Line 24:
	[[File:Transistor-diagram-with-rats.gif\|1920x1080px\|frameless\|Diagram of a transistor using the field effect to change its conductivity. The charges in the diagram are represented with rats.]]		[[File:Transistor-diagram-with-rats.gif\|1920x1080px\|frameless\|Diagram of a transistor using the field effect to change its conductivity. The charges in the diagram are represented with rats.]]

			The above example shows a transistor whose default state is '''off''', but you can also make transistors whose default state is '''on''', meaning they only conduct electricity when there's no charge applied.

			==== Transistors to Computers ====
			There are a bunch of pins on the back of your CPU that plug into your motherboard. Some are input pins, and some are output. Each CPU cycle, a specific pattern of input pins lights up, opening and closing different circuits inside the CPU. The electric current then races through the CPU, eventually exiting on a specific pattern of output pins.

			[[File:CPU-pins.webp\|1280x720px\|frameless\|Closeup of the CPU pins on the back of my old AMD Ryzen 7 3800x]]

			Let's imagine that I was a CPU manufacturer who wanted to make a computer chip that only had one function: to tell if a number was 69 or not. I have a bunch of CPU pins and two types of transistors that I can attach to the pins: type '''A''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has a electrical charge, and type '''B''' which only opens the circuit when the pin has no charge.

			The binary representation for 69 is 1000101, so if I put all my transistors on the same circuit, and then arranged the type A's and type B's like ABBBABA, then I'd have a chip that detects the number 69.

			It's just as easy to make a circuit that detects two numbers and outputs their sum. Repeat that for all combinations of two numbers and I have a chip that performs addition.

			I can then make another circuit for performing subtraction and then have a special pin switch between which circuit is active.

			Modern CPUs have billions of transistors switching between a massive amount of different circuits that all perform different actions.

	=== Software ===		=== Software ===
	~~There are a bunch~~ of ~~pins on~~ the ~~back of your CPU~~ that ~~plug into your motherboard~~. ~~Some are input pins~~, and ~~some are output. Each~~ CPU ~~cycle~~, ~~a specific pattern of input pins lights up~~, ~~opening and closing different circuits inside~~ the ~~CPU~~. The ~~electric current~~ then ~~races~~ through the ~~CPU, eventually exiting on a specific pattern of output pins~~.		The input is known as the instruction and usually has two parts: the opcode and the operand. The opcode, short for operation code, tells the CPU what kind of operation to perform. The operand is the data that the opcode works with. For example, if the opcode is for adding two numbers and saving the result to a CPU register, the transistors that control the addition circuit will activate, as well as the circuit that leads to saving the output to the specified register. The operand is then routed through the pathway that just opened up.

	The input is known as the instruction and usually has two parts: the opcode and the operand. The opcode, short for operation code, tells the CPU what kind of operation to perform. The operand is the data that the opcode works with. For example, if the opcode is for adding two numbers and saving the result to a CPU register, the transistors that control the addition circuit will activate, as well as the circuit that leads to saving the output to the specified register. The operand is then routed through the pathway that just opened up.
	<TODO>		<TODO>
	binary -> assembly -> code -> natural language		binary -> assembly -> code -> natural language