Introduction To Programming

 

What is programming?

Programming is writing computer code to create a program, to solve a problem. Programs are created to implement algorithms. Algorithms can be represented as pseudocode or a flowchart, and programming is the translation of these into a computer program.

To tell a computer to do something, a program must be written to tell it exactly what to do and how to do it. If an algorithm has been designed, the computer program will follow this algorithm, step-by-step, which will tell the computer exactly what it should do.

What is a programming language?

A programming language is an artificial language that a computer understands. The language is made up of series of statements that fit together to form instructions. These instructions tell a computer what to do.

A computer can only be programmed using special programming languages such as Python. If you enter a command in a human language, it will cause an error.

There are many different programming languages, some more complicated and complex than others. Among the most popular languages are:

i.     Python

ii.    Java

iii.   C++

iv.   QBASIC

v.    Scratch

Different languages work in different ways. For example, in Python all instructions are written in lowercase, but in BASIC they tend to be written in uppercase.

Programming languages are designed to be easy for a human to understand and write in. However, a computer cannot run programs written in these languages directly. Most programming languages have to be translated into machine code before the computer can execute the instructions .

What is a program?

Programs are made up of statements that the programming language knows and understands

Just as words are put together to form a sentence, a program puts one or more statements together to form an instruction. Each statement tells the computer to perform a specific task, and the instructions tell a computer what to do.

Entering a command in a human language will cause a program error and the same command needs to be entered in a programming language for the computer to output the desired command.