Computers and their programs have become an integral part of our lives, more than we could have imagined. They have transformed the way we work, communicate, learn, and even entertain ourselves.
Over the past 20 years, we have seen significant advancements in areas like distributed computing, cloud computing, and AI improvements such as voice and face recognition and self-driving cars. These advancements have not only made computers more powerful but also more accessible and user-friendly.
History of Programming
The history of programming dates back to the time of Charles Babbage in 1822. He was working on improving calculating devices used for navigation charts and astronomical tables. Babbage’s solution to the errors in these calculating devices was the Difference Engine. It used mechanical gears with numbers 0 to 9 etched onto their gaps separated by gear’s teeth.
Babbage later developed a better concept called the Analytical Engine, which is widely accepted as the basis of modern-day computing. Ada Lovelace, a friend of Babbage, published a document describing how the analytical engine could perform a sequence of calculations, essentially what a computer program does.
Programming
To understand programming, it’s essential to know how computers work at the most fundamental level. Computers only understand binary code, which consists of two digits 0 and 1. Binary Code relates to different electrical states similar to a light switch, 0 is equal to off and 1 is equal to on. Every program written needs to be converted to binary code or machine code.
Computers represent the binary code using tiny electrical conductors called transistors. These transistors are housed inside the central processing unit (CPU), which is essentially the brain of the computer.
Programming is the ability to provide a computer with a set of instructions in a particular language that it can understand and perform those operations or tasks. It is a skill that, like any other, improves with practice and learning. It can take quite a while to write straightforward programs at first, but as you progress, you’ll become more familiar with the language and how the logic in conditions should be applied.
Programming is also a creative skill. You can write a computer program to solve problems in many different ways. This creativity allows programmers to design solutions that are efficient, user-friendly, and innovative.
