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A Basic Introduction to Computer Programming Topics

Computer programming is one of the fields under computer science. While computer science refers to the study of computer applications, computer programming deals with the basics of a computer program – how it works, how it is designed, how it is fixed and why. If you're planning to learn programming soon, here is an introduction to computer programming topics you're likely to encounter:

The basics of computer programming

Like most disciplines, you will begin by learning the fundamentals of computer programming. Depending on your instructor or curriculum, you will probably be introduced to the history of programming and its languages and find out about what has occurred over the years through a timeline.

You will also be introduced to the basic concepts and theories of programming and how they have evolved over the years. You'll be able to see how fast programming has progressed over the centuries and learn the significant developments in this field. You will also encounter topics such as computer hardware, software, systems and language. You will have to learn these basics in order to understand how your field of specialization can contribute. This may seem too troublesome but really, you need to have a good background in the progress of programming to help give you a good grasp of its fundamentals.

Computer software

The result of all your hard work is actually the computer software, so expect this topic to be included in your introductory course. Some of the topics you'll find under this subject include application software, programming software and system software. During classes dealing with these subjects, you'll learn how to use programming tools, database management systems, assemblers, debuggers, text and source code editors, and the like.

Programming

Finally, you will be introduced to the topic you've been raring to learn – programming. Here you'll learn different types programming processes, styles and methods. You will learn the different types of programming including concurrent, functional, declarative (event-driven), imperative, object-oriented and Parsing.

Probably the next topics you'll learn are the basic components of every computer program, such as the source code and the API or application programming interface. You'll also learn how instruction is carried out to command a computer to execute a particular set of directions.

You'll also learn programming languages, which will introduce you to the kind of language you have chosen to specialize in. Your instructor might also present your class with a simple comparison of the different types of languages in use today and you'll also probably learn the types of languages that have lost favor or are already obsolete. You'll learn semantics, dialects and theories.

This is also where you'll begin learning how to program or write codes. Although your learning at this point will consist of lectures, a good part of your class will be spent working hands-on so you can begin practicing what the instructor has taught you. This is how your progress as a computer programmer will be evaluated.

The process of programming

One of the earliest topics you will encounter when learning computer programming is the process with which codes and computer languages are designed and produced. The process of programming includes several steps, such as:

1. Definition of the problem.

2. Design or plan of the solution.

3. Design of the code to be used for the program.

4. Testing and evaluation of the program.

5. Documentation.

Debugging, testing and maintenance

Probably the final list of topics you'll learn as your introduction to computer programming is application. In these topics, you'll learn how to test the program you have written, spot and locate any errors and correct them.

Computer Programming and Its Rich History

If it’s the history of programming that has to be retold, then it is safe to begin an account with the difference engine of Charles Babbage way back in 1822. Even from the time when computers were so simple, they still needed to have instructions so that they will be able to perform tasks that are inputted to them. This set of instructions is what is known today as computer programming.

During the difference engine’s era, the gears needed to be changed manually which would then result into the calculations being made. All of that was changed when signals of electricity replaced physical motion with the US Government’s 1942 machine named ENIAC. The concept of accepting programming was also followed by this machine.

To make programming faster, two vital concepts which directly influenced programming languages were developed in 1945 by John Von Neumann, who was then with the Institute for Advanced Study. The first concept was known as the shared-program method. This concept dictated that the hardware had to be non-complex and need not be hand-wired for every program. Intricate instructions were used to control this type of hardware which made reprogramming quicker.

The second concept called the ‘conditional control transfer’ gave birth to code blocks which can be used even in different orders or the so-called subroutines. The next part of the concept was logical branching. With this, the concept of having code blocks that can be used and reused was born.

By 1949, the Short Code language came out. It became the mother of electronic device computer language. With this language, the programmer was required to use 0’s and 1’s instead of the usual statements. 1951 marked the appearance of compiler named A-0 by Grace Hopper. This program translated all the 0’s and 1’s for the computer. This gave way to much quicker programming.

FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslating System) was introduced in 1957 which was also the first key language. It was designed for IBM for scientific computation. This language included the GOTO, DO and IF statements. FORTRAN’s forte was not business computing, though. It was a good program for number handling but not for business computations.

COBOL was then developed in 1959. It was designed as a businessman’s language. The COBOL’s program was comparable to an essay where there are 4-5 sections comprising a major whole. This made it easier to study.

The LISP language (developed for artificial intelligence study) also known as the Cambridge Polish was developed in 1958 by John McCarthy. This programming language is highly abstract and specific that is why it is still being used today. The LISP can store lists and modify them on its own.

In that same year, the Algol language was produced. This became the mother of the Pascal language, C and C++, and also Java. Algol also had the first proper grammar called the Backus-Naar form or BNF. Algol 68, which was the next version, was a harder version to use. Due to this difficulty, Pascal came into existence.

Niklaus Wirth introduced the Pascal language in 1968. It was a necessary means of teaching then. It was a combination of the following languages: ALGOL, FORTRAN and COBOL. It was also Pascal that improved the pointer data form. Its downfall was caused by its lack of variable groups. Modula-2 then appeared but C was already popular among many users.

C by Dennis Ritchie (1972, used by Unix) was comparable to Pascal but its precursors were the B and BCPL. It is also being used in Windows, Linux and MacOS. OOP (Object Oriented Programming) was developed in 1970’s until the 80’s. This developed into the C++ language in 1983. This language can manipulate many tasks all at the same time. This is also the chosen language courses in AP Computer Science. In 1987, Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language) was developed.

Java soon followed in 1994. It has yet many goals to reach especially with its slow-running programs. But there are high hopes that a lot is in store in the future for this language. Microsoft has also developed VB or Visual Basic which uses widgets and these are now widely used.

The future holds many more developments for computer programming. It may have started on a crude method but looking at the languages in use today, there were so many developments that we can only wonder what ‘impossibilities’ could be made possible very soon.

The Need For Computer Programming Language Evolution

The digital world constantly changes. New technologies are introduced and new developments in the industry are being made known to the public. There will always be changes in technology. And technology will constantly improve to help create a better world.

And one of the primary movers of technology and the digital world is a computer programming language. This is the language spoken and understood by the computer. The computer language is machine language. Basically, what the computer can understand and process are just a bunch of one's and zero's. It is really upon the expertise of the programmer to create special software that could be understood by the computer and the human user.

Computer programming software follows a certain language that computers follow. Examples of these languages are the Assembly language, C++, FoxPro, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro and several others. These types of software can mediate between the computer and the programmer. All the programmer has to do is to input the commands he would like the computer to do. He'll write the commands in the syntax that the computer programming language understands. The commands are then processed and converted into the machine language the computer processor understands. This is how the many applications and programs downloadable from the internet are created.

Different computer programming languages can provide different levels of functionality. Some software can give crisp graphical images. These programming languages are usually used in making games. Games are really what make computers half popular. And this is all because of the computer programming language created for making games that people from all over the world love. Games are complex individual programs that are interlinked together by the main game application.

Aside from computer games, programming languages allows for the development of functional software such as word processing programs, database programs, web-based applications, and several others. The software is made possible with the creation of the programming languages that are most fitting to the design and interface of the program being created. There are many times that a single application can be created multiple language platforms.

But then again, all of these programs won't be possible without the creation of an operating system. The operating system is the software by which a computer system runs. Popular examples of such software are the Windows platform, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS. There are a lot of old operating systems being used before and the most popular of which is DOS. The operating system serves as a good median for the computer and the processor's language. Its main job is to translate every single program created for the operating system and allow the machine to process them accordingly, so that people can run and use the program.

The evolution of computer programming languages is required in this ever-changing world. It is mandatory that they have to keep up with the demands of the current times. Before, computers are used against a black, monochrome background. Right now, computers uses images, colors, and interactive icons. The contrast is very striking that you can just imagine what would happened if there were no evolution that happened.

The introduction of new computer programming languages should be a welcome addition to the growing group of computer languages. The new features and abilities these can be used widely in different applications are in currently in demand.

Are Functions Core Concepts in Computer Programming?

Computer programming is a phrase that is bandied about quite heavily, but only few people actually understand its implications. The process of computer programming itself is difficult to understand for people who are not in the computer science field. Computer programming makes use of a code or a language: this language can be placed into several lines of code that can be translated to mean different things once they are processed as a program. For instance, the software that you use to calculate your taxes, or the software that you employ to make your simple web page are all products of skilful computer programming. Behind these software programs are scripts and codes, and these scripts and codes can mean different things.

For many different programming languages, a function can be important and can therefore be a key concept to learn when someone is interested in software and computer programming. A function can also be termed as a subroutine, procedure, or sub-query. How is a function important? For instance, if a company or institution has a library of many different programs, these programs can therefore consist of millions upon millions of lines of a source code. In the interests of time and space, you would like to keep from duplicating a certain source code in many different places.

Why is duplication so undesirable? If a source code is duplicated in many different places, it is being needlessly copied, and it can spell Hell for the programmer and troubleshooter when things go wrong down the line. If the source code is actually erroneous, the programmer or troubleshooter will have to correct the code in all the different places that it appears. If the source code has to be updated or improved in order to make the program either run faster or perform more operations, then the source code has to be modified, improved, and updated in all the places that it appears. And if the source code has to be removed and replaced with a new source code, then it has to be erased and replaced with the new code in every single place that it appears.

This is indeed time-consuming, and it can lead to more errors because of all the human intervention that has to be done. On the other hand, if there are functions that are built to handle all the different programs, then only one or a few changes need to be made should there be errors, or should the source code have to be updated, modified, improved, or changed. You can think of the function as an umbrella: it covers all of many different programs beneath it, so that you do not have to cover each program individually.

Having a single source code serving as the function is also advantageous when you have to introduce a new program that still makes use of that same source code. Because the source code is already available as an overall function or sub-program, you do not need to add the source code to the new program. You only need to find a way for the new program to interact with the source code itself.

These are only a few facts that you need to know about functions in computer programming. For more information, read up on the latest computer programs, how different programs can interact with each other using some umbrella or overall scripts, and how different programs can be improved when using functions.

BASIC: A Computer Programming Language

Computer programming has its own language, and that’s just the beginning of the software adventure. There are many different languages in computer programming, and all of them have their own purposes. In order to understand the importance of computer programming languages, knowing them, and tweaking them, one has to understand the importance of computer programming. Computer programming produces software packages, among other things, to meet our needs. We may need software for accounting, making photos bigger or smaller, or editing our home videos. Behind all these software packages are the computer programmers who use their individual languages in order to create the software.

One such computer programming language is the Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, or BASIC. BASIC is actually composed of many different kinds of programming languages that are actually higher level than most other languages. This BASIC family of computer programming languages was first designed in the 1960’s, and was originally made for non-science people to gain better access to computers. During that time, using a computer required that a person write customized software, a task that only mathematicians and scientists were equipped to do. The BASIC language was therefore a bridge for people of other professions to take advantage of the power of computers.

When the 1970’s came, the BASIC language, whether in its original form or a variant of it, spread onto microcomputers; and by the 1980’s, even home computers could be run in BASIC. Today, BASIC remains popular, as it serves as the basis for many of the more modern programming languages that have been developed in the wake of advanced operating systems and the Internet.

When it was originally conceived, BASIC was meant for beginners: it was a language that people could use easily, whether or not they were educated in mathematics and the sciences. The language also had to be a general purpose one, in that it had to serve many different needs, and not only those that mathematicians and scientists required. The root language of BASIC also had to allow for advanced features to be plugged on as experts grew more and more adept in it, and as the language found further use in many other fields. BASIC was also meant to be interactive, and was designed to show error messages that were clear and friendly; that is, these error messages had to completely explain what the problem was, which would hopefully allow the user to fix it faster and easier.

When it was first released, moreover, BASIC was free of charge, which allowed the language to spread much faster. Once the language spread much faster, it was also easy to modify it and correct errors. BASIC was also distributed to a few high schools in order to promote it faster. Thanks to this widespread use of the language, BASIC was soon implemented on several microcomputers, and by several software manufacturers.

Despite its success, BASIC has had its dissenters. For instance, some programmers find that its scripts do not show proper programming practices, and the language itself is too slow, or sometimes even too simple. Despite all these, however, BASIC has continued to thrive, succeed, and evolve, and has thus become a good tool to introduce beginner programmers to the concept of coding and computer programming.

These are only a few facts about the BASIC language. For more information on BASIC, read and do your own research through several key pages online, or using computer programming books.

Training in Macromedia

The Macromedia family of software might be something that is taken for granted by people who have used the different kinds of software in it a lot. By popping the Macromedia disk into the CD-ROM drive, everyone, from a toddler to a computer programmer, can do a lot of things with his or her computer. However, for those who are interested in working with such software, computer programming and training in Macromedia is needed.

There are many kinds of software in the Macromedia family. For instance, if you are interested in developing computer software, and if you are looking for a way to make a dynamic website, then you may need Adobe ColdFusion, which works like the ASP package of Microsoft, or the programming language PHP. If you are hoping to cut down on website design, development, and editing time, then you may also be interested in Adobe Contribute, which allows different members of an organization to contribute to the changes made in a website, therefore saving time and money in hiring a single person or a team to make the changes in the site.

If you want to do website design but want to see your results immediately instead of plodding through oceans and oceans of script, then you may be interested in Adobe Dreamweaver. This popular member of the Macromedia family may not require programming skills, but it can help software programmers understand what certain scripts do and how these scripts behave online.

For those interested in online learning solutions, there is Macromedia Authorware, which is a programming language that is based on flowcharts. Authorware is used for making programs that are interactive, and that can be integrated into various types of multimedia content. Also in demand is Adobe Director, which was originally created for making animation. Today, Adobe Director is used as a scripting language for creating a standalone kiosk, or CD-ROMS. It is also being used for developing online three-dimensional games.

The Macromedia family also has its own graphics editor in the person of Adobe Fireworks. The Fireworks program is the graphics editor that is designed to integrate with other Macromedia products. Another graphics program is the FreeHand package, which creates vector graphics in two-dimensions, and is designed for the use of desktop publishers.

What is undoubtedly the most popular package in the Macromedia family is the Flash and Shockwave group. Macromedia Shockwave players are multimedia players that were originally designed as independent packages, and that were made to play Flash programs. Today, however, the two are integrated heavily with each other; Flash itself is a highly powerful tool for website designers who want to create more dynamic and attractive websites that thrive heavily on animation. Despite the “eye candy” feel of Flash, however, most website designers stay away from it and do their own scripting, since Flash animation cannot be picked up by search engines, and can thus limit the amount of readable content that can help a website be more popular.

If you are interested in training in Macromedia, you also have to be aware that most of the packages presented are already under the Adobe umbrella. Moreover, you may need to hone your computer programming skills well enough to be able to run Macromedia applications and use them for your work. Not only is Macromedia all about popping something into your CD-ROM drive, it is about computer programming used well, in order to serve a wider variety of purposes.