ProPanda Analysis: Programming

ProPanda So let’s start off with what coding is. Coding is a set of instructions which a computer can understand and execute. Coding is very imperative when programming because computers are like children; they are very obedient and liberal but they know very little, this makes it necessary that you know how to express yourself using terms that they understand and have the same mentality as them so that you are able to elaborate to them on how to efficiently accomplish a large task. In this day and age, it is very important for students to learn coding as a foundational discipline like Science, Math, English, or History. This is because there are much more consumers of technology than developers. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that over the next 10 years, it is estimated that there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer science with only 400,000 graduates qualified to do them. The Week of Code is an initiative which seeks to unveil the mystery surrounding coding and show students and adults that anyone could learn the basics of coding. Coding is also important in the class room because it requires many skills such as computational thinking, analysis of problems, developing understanding, creating algorithms, managing resources, verification of requirements, and implementation of ideas. Since technology is very useful, handy, and flexible, learning coding can benefit teachers because they can become skilled with technology and use it to teach children concepts relating to their class such as a vocabulary game.

Like I stated before, computers know nothing and only understand binary which is just 1’s and 0’s or on’s and off’s like a switch. Binary can be used to convey letters, numbers, pixels, etc. Since binary can only be expressed by two symbols or states, it is written in base 2. This means each digit from right to left has a place value of 2N in base 10. So in binary I have to add all the place values to get my final answer. If I write 0000 it is equal to 0, 0001 is equal to 1, 0010 is equal to 2, 0100 is equal to 4, 1000 is equal to 8, 0011 is equal to 3, and so on. As you can see, for humans, binary is very tedious and time consuming to work in. So to counter this, people made many different programming languages which enable humans to communicate instructions to a machine efficiently. Programming languages basically summarize the binary code needed to do a task into a single phrase or word. The programming languages are used to create programs to control the behavior of the machine or express algorithms. Programs are a set of specific operations for a computer to perform and an algorithm is a process or set of step by step operations to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations. Whenever people talk about programming languages they are usually referring to high-level languages such as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, and Pascal. These languages have their own vocabulary and syntax (like grammar in a normal language) and are much more complex but also easier the code that the machine actually understands which is called machine languages. Each CPU has its own unique machine language. Lying between machine languages and high-level languages are languages called assembly languages. Assembly languages are similar to machine languages, but they are much easier to program in because they allow a programmer to substitute names for numbers. Machine languages consist of numbers only. Lying above high-level languages are languages called fourth-generation languages (usually abbreviated 4GL). 4GLs are far removed from machine languages and represent the class of computer languages closest to human languages. Regardless of what language you use, you eventually need to convert your program into machine language so that the computer can understand it. There are two ways to do this: 1) compile the program 2) interpret the program The question of which language is best is one that consumes a lot of time and energy among computer professionals. Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, FORTRAN is a particularly good language for processing numerical data, but it does not lend itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for writing well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C programming language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features, but it is complex and difficult to learn. The choice of which language to use depends on the type of computer the program is to run on, what sort of program it is, and the expertise of the programmer.

Comments

k - TristGamer (5/7/2017)

He He! ! Good post but I doubt if many would understand a thing from this. But good job. - visitor (5/14/2017)

Hard disc stores files when they aren't being executed or opened.

RAM stores programs and files that are opened or ran.

BIOS starts up computer and is used to do stuff such as resetting it and installing an OS.

CPU reads the coding.

I think I got those right. - Skullkid755 (5/16/2017)