What exactly is computer programming?

         

                                                                        First of all lets have a look at the trends going on in the software domain. I have seen people pursuing computer science for their graduation without any idea regarding what it is all about and ending up dropping out or perhaps not since they just want to complete the course despite being aware of the fact that this is not my field.Most of them goes with the trend i,e imitating others and thereby opting computer science as one of their family members took it.While others may be forced by their family or peers to do so ending up learning things other than what they intended to learn.Yet another reason for students pursuing computer science is due to the rapid development of technology within which the vital role of computer science has increased the number of job opportunities globally.On the other hand there are also myths spreading  out like with automation the job opportunities in the software industry will decrease gradually.But,why do this people forget the fact that in order to bring about such automation and stuff the industry requires skilled programmers which is self explanatory in terms of the increase in job opportunities the world'll witness in the near future.


                                                                           The software industry has made life much easier than before with various products .Most organizations shifted from the traditional File management system(book keeping) to databases which offers more security ,controls data redundancy etc. Data is the most valuable asset for almost all organizations in the modern world. Database makes it much easier to deal with huge amounts of the data which was not that easy earlier.



                                                                         So far we have discussed about the importance of software industry in the modern world and various reasons for people turning into this field. When it comes to the software development scenario in which the students opt for it without any idea it is important to know that what exactly is computer programming.



                                                                       All those applications which we use in our daily life directly or indirectly are comprised of millions of lines of codes written by various programmers together in which each group will be assigned a specific part to be done where they follow various naming conventions for variables,functions and proper commenting(documentation) for future reference and debugging.Software development is a step by step process which includes phases like coding,debugging,testing etc and hence time consuming .All these codes are written any of the programming languages available in the market like C,C++,Java,Python,C# ,JavaScript,PHP etc. Each has applications in their specific fields.



                                                                     Now let us understand what is computer programming through a very simple example.Assume that someone asks to do a very basic  math calculation such as adding 2 numbers together. He supplies you the numbers, you add them and provides him the result. Here, you performed the role of a computer, the man of a programmer and the medium of communication(instructions) for instance, let it may be in English performs the role of a programming language. Lets relate this to the virtual world in a bit more detailed manner. 
When the man asks you to perform an arithmetic operation, in this case addition you were able to understand as it was in your native language. Then he gives you 2 numbers which can be treated as user input and you perform the addition as instructed and gives him the result which is what typically a computer would do. But, as we all know computer is just a dumb machine. It can't do anything on its own unless programmed to do so. Here comes the significance of programming languages.Computers just can't understand our native language but only programming languages. Most of the modern high level programming languages use English like words (as part of their syntax) as they are easier to learn and makes more sense than other low level languages like Assembly language which are far too complicated since the instructions inside the computer are processed as one's and zero's (1's and 0's) which is the binary number system, there is a program called compiler which converts instructions written in high level programming language into machine code (low level) which comprises of sequence of one's and zero's that can be processed internally. While some programming language like Java, Python etc uses interpreter for this conversion.The main difference between a compiler and an interpreter is that compiler executes the code as a whole and shows all the errors all in one go while an interpreter executes the code line by line and stops on seeing an error which will not show the bugs on the rest part of the code.



                                                                    Computer programming is one of the highest paid jobs in the world. Also, designing a solution is not enough one should ensure that his code is less expensive or in other words more efficient in terms of time and memory usage. The growth in the software industry has been rising tremendously over the years. The world still needs creative and skilled programmers. Creativity enables one to stand out among other programmers. Also, practice makes a man perfect .Once you learn a programming language you should build things in your mind of practical applications in real life and thereby giving your ideas life in the form of apps.....