Introdustion to Programing
Lecture Handout
Introduction to programming
Lecture No. 1
Summary
o What is programming o Why programming is important o What skills are needed o Develop a basic recipe for writing programs o Points to remember
What is programming
As this course is titled “Introduction to programming”, therefore it is most essential and appropriate to understand what programming really means. Let us first see a widely known definition of programming.
Definition: "A program is a precise sequence of steps to solve a particular problem.”
It means that when we say that we have a program, it actually mean that we know about a complete set activities to be performed in a particular order. The purpose of these activities is to solve a given problem.
Alan Perlis, a professor at Yale University, says:
"It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical? "
It is a sarcastic statement about modern education, and it means that the modern education is not developing critical skills like planning, organizing and paying attention to detail. Practically, in our day to day lives we are constantly planning, organizing and paying attention to fine details (if we want our plans to succeed). And it is also fun to do these activities. For example, for a picnic trip we plan where to go, what to wear, what to take for lunch, organize travel details and have a good time while doing so.
When we talk about computer programming then as Mr. Steve Summit puts it
“At its most basic level, programming a computer simply means telling it what to do, and this vapid-sounding definition is not even a joke. There are no other truly fundamental aspects of computer programming; everything else we talk about will simply be the details of a particular, usually artificial, mechanism for telling a computer what to
Introduction to programming
Lecture No. 1
Summary
o What is programming o Why programming is important o What skills are needed o Develop a basic recipe for writing programs o Points to remember
What is programming
As this course is titled “Introduction to programming”, therefore it is most essential and appropriate to understand what programming really means. Let us first see a widely known definition of programming.
Definition: "A program is a precise sequence of steps to solve a particular problem.”
It means that when we say that we have a program, it actually mean that we know about a complete set activities to be performed in a particular order. The purpose of these activities is to solve a given problem.
Alan Perlis, a professor at Yale University, says:
"It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical? "
It is a sarcastic statement about modern education, and it means that the modern education is not developing critical skills like planning, organizing and paying attention to detail. Practically, in our day to day lives we are constantly planning, organizing and paying attention to fine details (if we want our plans to succeed). And it is also fun to do these activities. For example, for a picnic trip we plan where to go, what to wear, what to take for lunch, organize travel details and have a good time while doing so.
When we talk about computer programming then as Mr. Steve Summit puts it
“At its most basic level, programming a computer simply means telling it what to do, and this vapid-sounding definition is not even a joke. There are no other truly fundamental aspects of computer programming; everything else we talk about will simply be the details of a particular, usually artificial, mechanism for telling a computer what to