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Computer Programming
Computer Programming
By LinuxHPC.org and Cluster Resources
| Computer Programming |
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Computer programming (often simply programming or coding) is the craft of writing a set of commands or instructions that can later be compiled and/or interpreted and then inherently transformed to an executable that an electronic machine can execute or "run". Programming requires mainly logic, but has elements of science, mathematics, engineering, and — many would argue — art.
In software engineering, programming (implementation) is regarded as one phase in a software development process.
Programming languages
The programming language a computer can directly execute is machine language (sometimes called "machine code"). Originally all programmers worked out every detail of the machine code, but this is hardly ever done anymore. Instead, programmers write source code, and a computer (running a compiler, an interpreter or occasionally an assembler) translates it through one or more translation steps to fill in all the details, before the final machine code is executed on the target computer. Even when complete low-level control of the target computer is required, programmers write assembly language, whose instructions are mnemonic one-to-one transcriptions of the corresponding machine language instructions.
Different programming languages support different styles of programming (called programming paradigms). Part of the art of programming is selecting one of the programming languages best suited for the task at hand. Different programming languages require different levels of detail to be handled by the programmer when implementing algorithms, often in a compromise between ease of use and performance (a trade-off between "programmer time" and "computer time").
In some languages, an interpretable p-code binary (or byte-code) is generated, rather than machine language. Bytecode is used in the popular Java programming language by Sun Microsystems as well as Microsoft's recent .NET family of languages (MS.NET's P-Code is called the Intermediate Language or IL) and Visual Basic previous to the .NET version.
Examples of Computer Programming Languages
- C is a compiled procedural, imperative programming language made popular as the basis of Unix.
- C++ is a compiled programming language based on C, with support for object-oriented programming. It is one of the most widely-used programming languages currently available. It is often considered to be the industry-standard language of game development, but is also very often used to write other types of computer software applications. C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup and was based on the programming language C. C++ retains the syntax and many familiar functions of C, but also adds various concepts associated with other programming paradigms, such as classes.
- Java is an object oriented interpreted programming language. It has gained popularity in the past few years for its ability to be run on many platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and other systems. It was developed by Sun Microsystems.
- Lisp is a family of functional, sometimes scripted, programming languages often used in AI.
- Pascal is a general-purpose structured language named after the famous mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. It was very popular during the 80's and 90's. Whilst popularity of Pascal itself has waned (it's principal use is in teaching of programming) languages derived from it (such as Borland Delphi) are still in use.
- BASIC (Beginner's All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was mostly used when microcomputers first hit the market, in the nineteen seventies and eighties, but was largely replaced by other languages such as C, Pascal and Java. Whilst some commercial applications have been written in BASIC it has typically been seen as a language for learning/teaching programming rather than as a language for serious development. Different implmentations varied widely in the functionality they offered, most lacked important features such as strong data typing, procedures and functions.
- Visual Basic designed and developed by Microsoft, is integrated into a visual development interface.
- PHP is a newer programming language with focus on web design and a C-like syntax.