Introduction
If you are beginner in programming with Arduino, read all chapters carefully, visit Arduino web site and Google for many terms normally used in Arduino hardware programming and assembling, and generally about microcontroller purpose and usage.
What is Arduino?
From official Arduino web site:
"Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language and the Arduino Software."
What is interesting, many original Arduino boards and it's clones available on market has pin headers and it enables you easily to attach sensors, relay boards, buttons and switches without need for welding iron or any experience in electronic development. Moreover, you can build complex system with very little knowledge in electronic simply by connecting so called Arduino shields, sensors and relays with jumper wires, copy-paste and compile code in Arduino IDE and upload compiled C++ code(firmware) in Arduino board.
But using Arduino IDE and become familiar with at least basic C++ programming language is essential to complete larger projects, because simply copy-paste-compile code usually is not enough for this purpose.
Arduino Control Center programming IDE is no alike Arduino software, simply because of the fact that it not designed to write and compile C++ code.
What you can do with Arduino Control Center, read in this chapter.