- What is a Program?
More than a “piece of text typed by a programmer,” a program is a line of instruction, an issuance of command, a direct order formulated in an artificial language, designed with the sole purpose of communicating with and setting tasks for computers. As “a building of thought,” a program is a construct of very precise and rigorous logic, it is the end result of an edifying process involving thorough and accurate thinking, which takes form during what is referred to as “the act of programming.” If a computer is basically a machine, composed of different parts assembled and working together, this means a program is an “immaterial machine,” an assemblage of data built into the computer’s memory. Depending on the purpose of the program, this data is mainly concerned with “making the computer do what it does,” directing and controlling “the actions performed on this same memory.” Without programs, a computer is basically a form of unintelligent and inarticulate machine that needs instructions in order to perform any sort of task.
- What can you say about complexity in programming?
Ranging from very straightforward, simple actions to quite elaborate and complicated procedures, programming involves different levels of complexity in calculation which depend on the task looking to be performed. Despite the “tedious and frustrating” process that “constructing a program” can usually entail, the reward of successfully instructing computers to automatically perform increasingly complex tasks and calculations, most of which would otherwise take an extremely long time to manually perform, is an attractive incentive. This is mostly because programming is a means to dictate and direct a computer to function in ways it previously did not “know,” as the complexity of programming increases and the computer learns to achieve higher levels of sophistication in different forms of “skill” and capability. The type of complexity that programming involves can be easily compared to that found in language, architecture, or engineering, as it can develop and express increasingly complex and sophisticated concepts into “common and well understood,” automated routines.
As immaterial constructs, programs may be weightless sets of values which cost nothing to build, but without caution they may very easily grow out of control under the typing hands of programmers. This will result in a program growing exponentially, both in size as well as complexity, to a point where it becomes confusing even to the programmer responsible for creating it. At a fundamental level, programming can be said to be a form of art which takes great skill. Although its rules and guidelines may be “simple and clear,” it is a well known fact that programs which are edified based on these, are usually prone to gain enough complexity that they inevitably usher-in their own set of rules. Therefore, the chief problem concerned with programming, namely being able not only to control, but to “subdue” the program’s complexity, falls on the programmer.
Some programmers manage this complexity by limiting their capabilities to “only a small set of well-understood techniques,” composing a rigid set of practices that carefully determine what kind of form programs ought to have, and thus getting confined to a kind of “safe” zone. Others consider these methods as “not only boring,” but also extremely ineffective, as new levels of complexity in tasks often will require a new and more sophisticated thought process in order to find the right solutions. Programming as a field of practice is still young, but is rapidly developing into a diverse set of methodologies ample enough to accommodate a wide array of diversified approaches. This may imply several terrible mistakes that need to be made in order to understand how to actually design a program, and learners are encouraged to make those mistakes in order to develop a practical sense of good programming.
- What function do Programing Languages have?
Programming languages were non-existent at the birth and early stages of computational science. Instead of programs, large rows of switchboards would be set in the correct position, and holes would be punched into cardboard strips and fed into machines in order to enable computers to do the simplest tasks. Given the tediousness of such error-prone procedures, most of which involved manually entering an endless strip of arcane patterns, even writing the most simple programs would require a clever and disciplined approach, whereas more complex programs were not even conceived of. Up until the late eighties and early nineties, before Windows revolutionized the software industry with the idea of a visual interface, users mainly interacted with computers through language-based interfaces such as the BASIC and DOS. Being a form of “computer language,” programming languages are mainly used to communicate with, to instruct, and to teach computers. They work much in the same manner as human languages do, in that they combine different elements, like words and phrases, in increasingly new and different arrays enabling the computer to learn and perform new procedures, ranging from simple numerical calculations to email communications, graphic interfaces, interactive web browsing, and so on and so forth. Despite the level of sophistication experienced in today’s “user-friendly” visual interfaces, computer language-based interfaces like JavaScript are built into almost any modern web browsing software, and are therefore available literally on any device. In this sense, good programming languages help programmers get rid of useless and unproductive components of the execution process, omitting unimportant details while at the same time revealing a more straightforward and effective approach for them to work with.
- What is the relationship between Java and JavaScript?
Java and JavaScript are two clearly distinct programming languages having almost nothing to do with each other, except for sharing a similar name, a minor inconvenience based on marketing considerations occurred at the time both languages were being introduced and gaining popular demand. However, JavaScript was particularly prominent as it solved the problem of programming the Netscape Navigator web browser. Because of this, and from the time of its introduction in 1995, JavaScript was “adopted” by every other major browser, making it possible for users to experience increasingly clever modes of direct interaction with both modern and traditional websites and applications.
What is ECMAScript and how is it related to Javascript?
The terms ECMAScript and JavaScript can be used in place of each other, as they both refer to the same computer programming language. The only difference between is that the term ECMAScript is the name given to a standard document which describes how the programming language of JavaScript should effectively work across variously different software [claiming] to support it. This document is none other than the ECMAScript standard, and is named after the international organization Ecma, who is responsible for the standardization of Javascript following its adoption beyond Netscape.
