Programming
Introduction
The programming section holds worksheets, help and other resources. For theory help, refer to Paper 4 or your text book.
Free Software (click below)
LINK FOR VISUAL STUDIO Enterprise (use your single sign-on account to access and download)
https://azureforeducation.microsoft.com/devtools
Jetbrains Rider have an IDE that works with VB.NET on Apple OSX if you are not running Parallels https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/download/#section=mac
Follow the link to register for a free student account for JetBrains software. You will need to renew this license each year while you are a student. Do use your School account so that it can detect that you are a student.
https://www.jetbrains.com/shop/eform/students
You also have access to Kivuto webstore, where you can download many products for free, or at vastly reduced rates. https://e5.onthehub.com/WebStore/ProductsByMajorVersionList.aspx?cmi_cs=1&cmi_mnuMain=14d5ed7a-4414-e911-8110-000d3af41938&ws=bd9af05b-e30c-e811-80fe-000d3af41938&vsro=8
In addition to the free downloadable software above, there is an online interpreter/compiler that runs Python, Java and VB.NET : Online VB.Net Compiler - Online VB.Net Editor - Run VB.Net Online - Online VB.Net Runner (jdoodle.com) as well as 69 other languages.
There is also the Mono project, which supports online VB compilation
For MAC users, you can download and use Jetbrains Rider, which is an IDE supporting VB.NET, C# development, etc. https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/. You can register for a free student version for free.
Finally, Mac users can also install Parallels, which allows you to run Windows on Mac OS. https://www.parallels.com/uk/pd/general/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtMCKBhDAARIsAG-2Eu82YZLIQGzjHLkAxPl56FFOR9jeRHoAgFZbOZ8lajOxqvC-KYJA6aoaApqMEALw_wcB
Web & Video Resources
VB.NET
This is the first in a series of how-to videos on Visual Basic. It does make use of Windows Forms (which you will not be using in the exam), but the language syntax is identical. The difference is that we input and output from a console, rather than a GUI.
Python
There are a plethora of Python resources, but do ensure you are looking for the correct version. Python 3 has been out for a number of years now, but does differ in its syntax (slightly) to Python 2.
Python file access: How to Create, Open, Append, Read, Write
This is a 4 hour course by freecodecamp.org for beginner Python.