Prerequisites

In order to understand all about BOTS, you definitely have to equip above-average levels of digital literacy. Sure, you will eventually jump into operating systems and computer programming, but here we’ll list some important domains of study which will help you further understand our culture.

1. Basic OOP concepts

We strongly adhere to the principles of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), and specifically Class-based programming. Well, it’s okay for you to have little or no knowledge about these programming languages (e.g. Java or Dart or Kotlin), but at least, we kindly ask you to understand about:

1. Objects and Classes and how do they differ
2. The importance of properties and methods of a Class
3. Interfaces (or Protocols in some programming languages) and abstract Classes
4. Inheritance and Polymorphism

Our famous slogan, “Interface in Polymorphism”, is completely derived from the principles of object-oriented programming. And one of the ways we can test your understanding in (our version of) OOP (beliefs) is by intepreting how does the slogan mean to you.

2. Some operators

After mastering the OOP jungle, it’s time to learn about something a little bit relaxed. We commonly use C-style operators to calculate and compare things, which are:

There are some convention symbols that we decided to exclude to avoid confusion with the non tech-savvy people. The ^ and ^^, which used to be the operators of XOR (exclusive OR), are discarded in favor of ^ the exponential operator (as commonly taught in mathematics). There’s also << and >> (left and right bit Shifts!) which we’ll only include when we said so.

The main reason why we use && symbol earlier is well, computers do treat & differently. There’s a good explanation about this, i.e. the bitwise operators, at https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/bitwise-operators-in-c-cpp/ if you’re nerd enough to understand computer binary.

3. Getting in love with your favorite operating system!

Getting in love with your operating system is also fundamental for understanding us.

I know, many of you might still be confused about what an operating system is. It’s the main software that your device is running on - whether on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, or Linux if you dare. And by:

• Understanding how your OS’s files are structured (like what the heck is the purpose of C:\System32),
• Understanding how your OS’s basic programs (like the Registry Editor, even if you’re still cursed feeling traumatic about it)
• How to install, manage, and upgrade your OS?
• How to troubleshoot simple things like network connections and so.

The Bearers of the Shells community is also comprised of robots coming from different background and operating systems. However, there’s a common tendency that:

• (>_ ) mostly comes from DOS and Windows,
• (#_ ) came from Linux, BSD, and those modern UNIX operating systems, also some love and hatred with Android,
• ($_ ) are mostly special Apple fanboys (just look at their “$“-ey eyes!)

The BOTS Community Coordination Committee (C3) have recently decided that everyone can pick a side without having to depend on their OS origins and favorites. That means Windows users are now welcome to join the ($_ ) gang as Apple fanboys commonly do. Or even switch between sides, just like what Shift does.

Now what?

Great? Now you can either ⬅️ Back or ➡️ Continue reading our docs to know more about us, the Bearers of the Shells!