Computer Programming Overview

Editor's Notes

• #5: Using pre-packaged software is not programming!
• #9: Notes: Structural and Procedural paradigms were at the beginning of the computing era, and thereabouts also existed the Functional paradigm. Some languages are designed to support one particular paradigm (Smalltalk supports object-oriented programming, Haskell supports functional programming), while other programming languages support multiple paradigms (such as Object Pascal, C++, Java, C#, Scala,Visual Basic, Common Lisp, Scheme, Perl, Python, Ruby,Oz and F#). For example, programs written in C++ or Object Pascal can be purely procedural, purely object-oriented, or they can contain elements of both or other paradigms. Software designers and programmers decide how to use those paradigm elements. The next advance was the development of procedural languages. These third-generation languages (the first described as high-level languages) use vocabulary related to the problem being solved. For example, COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) – uses terms like file, move and copy. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) – using mathematical language terminology, it was developed mainly for scientific and engineering problems. ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) – focused on being an appropriate language to define algorithms, while using mathematical language terminology and targeting scientific and engineering problems just like FORTRAN. PL/I (Programming Language One) – a hybrid commercial/scientific general purpose language supporting pointers. BASIC (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) – it was developed to enable more people to write programs. C – a general-purpose programming language, initially developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs. All these languages follow the procedural paradigm. That is, they describe, step by step, exactly the procedure that should, according to the particular programmer at least, be followed to solve a specific problem. The efficacy and efficiency of any such solution are both therefore entirely subjective and highly dependent on that programmer's experience, inventiveness and ability.
• #10: Notes: Structural and Procedural paradigms were at the beginning of the computing era, and thereabouts also existed the Functional paradigm. Some languages are designed to support one particular paradigm (Smalltalk supports object-oriented programming, Haskell supports functional programming), while other programming languages support multiple paradigms (such as Object Pascal, C++, Java, C#, Scala,Visual Basic, Common Lisp, Scheme, Perl, Python, Ruby,Oz and F#). For example, programs written in C++ or Object Pascal can be purely procedural, purely object-oriented, or they can contain elements of both or other paradigms. Software designers and programmers decide how to use those paradigm elements. The next advance was the development of procedural languages. These third-generation languages (the first described as high-level languages) use vocabulary related to the problem being solved. For example, COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) – uses terms like file, move and copy. FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) – using mathematical language terminology, it was developed mainly for scientific and engineering problems. ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) – focused on being an appropriate language to define algorithms, while using mathematical language terminology and targeting scientific and engineering problems just like FORTRAN. PL/I (Programming Language One) – a hybrid commercial/scientific general purpose language supporting pointers. BASIC (Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) – it was developed to enable more people to write programs. C – a general-purpose programming language, initially developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at AT&T Bell Labs. All these languages follow the procedural paradigm. That is, they describe, step by step, exactly the procedure that should, according to the particular programmer at least, be followed to solve a specific problem. The efficacy and efficiency of any such solution are both therefore entirely subjective and highly dependent on that programmer's experience, inventiveness and ability.
• #11: Lisp Haskell Clojure
• #12: Examples Java C++ Smalltalk Scala
• #14: Examples Java Clojure Scala
• #17: Natural Language Examples Kids Make Nutritious Snacks Red Tape Holds Up New Bridge Police Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half [ real news paper headlines, compiled by Rich Pattis ]
• #19: In computer science, primitive data type is either of the following:[citation needed] a basic type is a data type provided by a programming language as a basic building block. Most languages allow more complicated composite types to be recursively constructed starting from basic types. a built-in type is a data type for which the programming language provides built-in support. In most programming languages, all basic data types are built-in. In addition, many languages also provide a set of composite data types. Opinions vary as to whether a built-in type that is not basic should be considered "primitive".[citation needed] The actual range of primitive data types that is available is dependent upon the specific programming language that is being used. For example, in C, strings are a composite but built-in data type, whereas in modern dialects of BASIC and in JavaScript, they are assimilated to a primitive data type that is both basic and built-in. Classic basic primitive types may include: Character (character, char); Integer (integer, int, short, long, byte) with a variety of precisions; Floating-point number (float, double, real, double precision); Fixed-point number (fixed) with a variety of precisions and a programmer-selected scale. Boolean, logical values true and false. Reference (also called a pointer or handle), a small value referring to another object's address in memory, possibly a much larger one. More sophisticated types which can be built-in include: The Boolean type represents the values true and false. Although only two values are possible, they are rarely implemented as a single binary digit for efficiency reasons. Many programming languages do not have an explicit boolean type, instead interpreting (for instance) 0 as false and other values as true. Character and string types can store sequences of characters from a character set such as ASCII. Since most character sets include the digits, it is possible to have a numeric string, such as"1234". However, many languages would still treat these as belonging to a different type to the numeric value 1234 Any type that does not specify an implementation is an abstract data type. Abstract types can be handled by code that does not know or "care" what underlying types are contained in them. Programming that is agnostic about concrete data types is called generic programming. Arrays and records can also contain underlying types, but are considered concrete because they specify how their contents or elements are laid out in memory.
• #21: High performance, complex computation - weather prediction, mathematical simulation, Embedded systems (e.g. cars, traffic lights, MRI scanners)
• #25: http://norvig.com/21-days.html
• #26: http://arihant427.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/overview-of-c-language.html
• #28: Python - great first language for beginners available on multiple platforms Ruby - “...focus on simplicity and productivity with an elegant syntax that is natural to read and easy to write” - www.ruby-lang.org PHP - Usually for web programming and “hackers” language of choice
• #30: http://www.mooc-list.com/course/programming-everybody-coursera https://www.coursera.org/course/pythonlearn