The Nature of Programming & Software essays

The Nature of Programming & Software essays In the 21st Century, computers have become an inevitable part of our lives. Over the course of the last few decades, it has greatly changed the way business is done. In the stock exchange, for example, buyers and seller can make trades right on their own personal desktop. Large quantities of stocks consisting of thousands of shares can be bought and sold very conveniently thanks to the evolution in computer technology. In general, computers have sped up the pace of life and have truly turned our world into a global village, an idea that was once thought to be strictly impossible. With the establishment of networks, a simple click of a mouse can link you to relatives who live on the other side of the globe. In addition, computers have made water and air travel less frustrating as airplanes and ships can now be monitored electronically via radar. Without the slightest of a doubt, computers have made our world a much better place. However, computer itself is nothing more than a useless piece of rock without all the softwares and programs installed within. What is a computer program? It is simple a set of instructions that tell a computer exactly what to do much like a brain to a body. The instructions might tell the computer to add up a set of numbers, or compare two numbers and make a decision based on the result. Often, programs allow the users to input their commands so the computer can follow the instructions and in the process do something useful for the users like balancing a checkbook or displaying a game on the screen or implementing a word processor. There are two types of programming high level and low level. While high level programming such as C is close to the human language, low-level programming are basically machine codes written in binary or hexadecimal. In order to write a computer program, the computer must be told, step-by-step, exactly what it should do. If this is done correctly, the ...