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What is Computer Programming

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What is Computer Programming

What is Computer Programming

As human beings use different languages to communicate and convey their thoughts, ideas, messages, and actions to others, in the same way, to communicate with computers, a computer understandable language is required, known as Programming Language. Thus, a programming language is a way to communicate with the computer and provide instructions to the computer so that the computer can execute our tasks. Computer Programming is the process of designing and building programs in order to execute the instructions successfully. The demand for computer programming has increased highly, and people are learning computer programming as they find a good interest in such a field. Programming is performed by Coding, and we create programs by writing codes on the computer. Computer code is the logic of a human mind that we create for executing our instructions and get the results accordingly. Using computer programming concepts, we can analyze, develop, and implement several algorithms that are used for executing the programs. As human beings use various languages for communication such as English, Hindi, and other regional languages, similarly, there are multiple programming languages through which we can provide instructions and execute programs. At present, computer programming has boon the world and minds of the young generation who choose programming as their career field and include their full dedication and efforts to grow themselves in this field.

Concepts of Computer Programming

Every learning has some basic concepts that should be understood thoroughly. A person can be good at mathematics if the basic concepts are clear to study maths at higher levels, in English, one should be clear with English grammar so that they can speak, write and communicate very well in English. So, to move to a higher level, one should be clear with their basic level of knowledge. There are the following concepts in computer programming that should be clear for learning and hands-on in computer programming:

  • We should know about the programming environment.
  • The grammar of Computer programming, known as Syntax.
  • Role of Data types, variables, and keywords in computer programming.
  • Different types of loops and its role in computer programming
  • What are input and output operations in computer programming
  • Functions and its role
  • Various types of logical and arithmetic operators.

To become a good computer programmer and enhance your knowledge level in computer programming, you should be clear about these basic concepts. Also, every programming language has its own syntax and execution method and carries its own set of rules. But the objective is the same that is to make the computer understand our instructions, execute the program, and get the appropriate computing results.

History of Computer Programming

1206: Al-Jazari, an Arab engineer, invented a programmable drum machine that was able to play several drum patterns and rhythms through pegs and cams. Such a drum machine was a musical mechanical automaton.

1801: The Jacquard loom that was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard (a French weaver) was able to produce different weaves by changing the ‘program’.

In the 9th century, various code-breaking algorithms were also introduced. An Arab mathematician Al-Kindi gave rise to an algorithm that was able to decipher the encrypted code. The algorithm was known as the Cryptographic algorithm.

1843: Ada Lovelace, a mathematician, published an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers. The algorithm was carried out by the Analytical Engine that was given by Charles Babbage. It was the year when the first computer program was dated.

1880: Herman Hollerith, an American inventor, invented the idea and concept to store data in machine-readable form. Later, a control panel was added, and the 1906 Type I tabulator was programmed for different job purposes.

1940s: The unit record equipment, namely IBM 602 and IBM 604, became the first electronic computers that were programmed by the control panels.

Earlier machine code was the well-known computer programming language through which the instructions were given in the binary notation to the computer. Later on, Assembly language came into existence that enabled programmers to specify the instruction set in the form of text, each having a meaningful name for specifying the addresses. With more development, High-level languages were introduced that made the process of program development very easy, simple, and easy to understand. Thus, various high-level languages were developed from which FORTRAN was the first widely used language. Later on, more languages were developed, such as COBOL and Lisp.

The late 1960s: As it was still the punch card era, computer programs were written using punch cards or paper tapes. This year, it became possible to write computer programs directly on the computer via text editors, and data storage devices and computer terminals became inexpensive.

Computer Programming Languages

There are following multiple programming languages that allow programmers to process and execute small as well as large programs:

What is Computer Programming

  • C Language: The language was developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie and its laboratories at AT & T Bells It was basically designed and developed for implementing the UNIX OS. It is a structured programming language.
  • C++: It was developed in 1983 and was an object-oriented version of the C programming language. C++ was developed for providing high-level abstractions so as to handle large development projects efficiently.
  • C#: It was developed in 1983, known as Objective-C by Apple. It was mainly created for addressing the lacking points of the object-oriented programming language. Later on, it was licensed by NeXt in 1988.
  • Python: It was developed in the late 1980s, which was an advanced programming language because it was object-oriented, interpreted, robust plus flexible.
  • Java: It was developed in 1990 at Sun Microsystems, and was originally known as Oak. It is a general-purpose and high-level programming language.
  • HTML: HyperText Markup Language was developed in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee (a physicist) that enabled scientists to share documents in an online mode.
  • JavaScript: It was developed in 1995 at Netscape and was known as LiveScript. Later on, it was named JavaScript, which is a client-side programming language.

These are some of the primary computer programming languages. Besides these languages, there are many more programming languages such as Php, Ruby, Swift, R, Scala, and many more.


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