Basic Concepts of Computer Programming

　

I originally published this article on Yahoo Voices under the pen name John Mario.

This article is intended for those who have not had any exposure to computer programming and have no knowledge of electronics. This article does not define how to write a program in a specific language. It only covers the basics.

In order to write a computer program, you need a compiler. A compiler allows you to use a specific set of instructions to create a computer program and then convert that program into machine language.

Each compiler is for a specific programming language. A programming language is a specific set of instructions available for use in any program. Two very popular programming languages are Visual Basic and Visual C++. The modern compilers provide the user with an editor that allows the user to type in the program. You would type selected instructions in a specific order to perform a specific task. For example, you might want to collect information from the user and display that information on the monitor.

One instruction found in compilers is the print instruction.

If you wrote a program to display the phrase "Hello World," you would use the print instruction.

It would look like this:

print "Hello World!"

Each compiler may require a different syntax for the print instruction. For example: the C++ compiler requires a semicolon at the end of each instruction. Hence in C++ you would type

print "Hello World!";

There are other requirements for a complete C++ program to print "Hello World." But the exact contents of the complete program in C++ is beyond the scope of this article.

After writing and saving your program, you have to build your program. Building a program means converting the program to machine language. The resulting machine language file contains binary codes. When you build a program, the program may list syntax errors. These errors are instructions that are typed in wrong. They may be missing punctuation marks or they may contain unrecognized words.

When you execute the program, the binary code is converted into voltage levels that are applied to the electronics inside your computer to cause the computer to perform a specific action.

After you build the program, you have to test it. You start by executing the program. If the program does not run correctly, you have to examine the program to find out what is wrong. Debugging a program is an art by itself.

Learning programming is a challenging task that will consume a significant portion of your time. I highly recommend taking a course in school. However, if you prefer to learn on your own, you might join a programmer's forum on the web.Then you can ask questions in the forum about which is the best compiler for you and which books they recommend. Your best bet is to go to your local book store where you can read a few pages of the book to find out if you can understand it.

Reference:

My experience as an embedded systems software engineer.