Name: Md. Iqbal Hossain Roll :

Computer programming  Programming is a lot of fun and extraordinarily useful. While you learn to program, you'll also develop a host of other analytical and critical thinking skills for tackling all sorts of complex problems (not just ones on computers) and it may just help you start a new career or land a new job in software development.  Computer programming is almost always done in some sort of Programming Language. These languages are written so that humans can understand them, but are formal and rigorous enough to input into a machine.

Some languages are geared for specific purposes. C, Java, etc are meant to be “general purpose” languages for building software and computer applications (like a web browser!) Languages like PHP are meant for dynamic websites (like wiki How!) And there are others still: Python, Perl, etc are “general scripting languages” meant for performing a wide variety of small tasks.

History Computer programming  In the 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a medium that could then be read by a machine. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for lists of instructions (not data) to drive programmed machines such as Jacquard looms and mechanized musical instruments. "After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards... To process these punched cards, first known as "Hollerith cards" he invented the keypunch, sorter, and tabulator unit record machines. These inventions were the foundation of the data processing industry. In 1896 he founded the Tabulating Machine Company (which later became the core of IBM). The addition of a control panel (plug board) to his 1906 Type I Tabulator allowed it to do different jobs without having to be physically rebuilt. By the late 1940s, there were several unit record calculators, such as the IBM 602 and IBM 604, whose control panels specified a sequence (list) of operations and thus were programmable machines.

 In 1954, FORTRAN was invented; it was the first high level programming language to have a functional implementation, as opposed to just a design on paper. (A high-level language is, in very general terms, any programming language that allows the programmer to write programs in terms that are more abstract than assembly language instructions, i.e. at a level of abstraction "higher" than that of an assembly language.) It allowed programmers to specify calculations by entering a formula directly (e.g. Y = X*2 + 5*X + 9). The program text, or source, is converted into machine instructions using a special program called a compiler, which translates the FORTRAN program into machine language.

Programming languages  Different programming languages support different styles of programming (called programming paradigms). The choice of language used is subject to many considerations, such as company policy, suitability to task, availability of third-party packages, or individual preference. Ideally, the programming language best suited for the task at hand will be selected. Trade- offs from this ideal involve finding enough programmers who know the language to build a team, the availability of compilers for that language, and the efficiency with which programs written in a given language execute. Languages form an approximate spectrum from "low-level" to "high-level"; "low- level" languages are typically more machine-oriented and faster to execute, whereas "high-level" languages are more abstract and easier to use but execute less quickly. It is usually easier to code in "high-level" languages than in "low-level" ones.

 Allen Downey, in his book How To Think Like A Computer Scientist, writes:  The details look different in different languages, but a few basic instructions appear in just about every language:  input: Gather data from the keyboard, a file, or some other device.  output: Display data on the screen or send data to a file or other device.  arithmetic: Perform basic arithmetical operations like addition and multiplication.  conditional execution: Check for certain conditions and execute the appropriate sequence of statements.  repetition: Perform some action repeatedly, usually with some variation.

Steps of Computer programming  1. Start with a good book or tutorial on programming. The book will probably suggest a language. If you need recommendations, you might try Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman. It'll teach you how to start programming in a language called Scheme( Now called Racket), which is a very simple language to learn. The book is available online for free at  2. Get a compiler/interpreter/IDE for the programming language your book uses. A compiler/interpreter is just another computer program, but it will convert ideas you've written in a programming language into "machine code" so you can see things work. If you chose to use the book above, try PLT Scheme ( If you're starting to program in Java, you could try Eclipse ( If you're using C/C++, try Dev C++ ( or C/C++ interpreter Ch (

 3. Read the book: Take examples of the programming language from the book and put them into your interpreter. Try changing the examples and making the program do different things.  4. Try putting together your own ideas to form a working program. Start with simple things, like a program to convert currencies, and work your way up a long to more complex things as you continue reading and learning about your programming language.  5. Once you start actively programming in your first language, you may want to learn a second one. You'll get the most out of learning a second programming language if you pick one that uses a radically different paradigm than the one you started with. For instance, if you started in Scheme, you might try learning C or Java next. If you started in Java, you could learn Perl or Python.

 6. Continue programming and trying new things! To be a good programmer, you, at the very least, have to keep up with changing technology. Its a constant learning process, and you should always be learning new languages, new paradigms, and most importantly: programming new things!  7. Learn how to type - This is very essential as it is make your programming very fast and effective. Although, people don't always recommend that you should learn how to type but it's very helpful.

Conclusion  Many computer languages provide a mechanism to call functions provided by libraries such as in a.so. Provided the functions in a library follow the appropriate run time conventions (e.g., method of passing arguments), then these functions may be written in any other language.