The
most closely associated idea to computers is the notion of
programming, which is a sequence of instructions that will eventually
lead to some kind of performance, like running a game or printing a
document, or just about anything you can do with a computer. However,
a lot of other machines are programmed: your video-recorder, or pocket
calculator contain programs, very much like a computer. The difference
is that those machines are “dedicated” to a specific task (and
their programmes are etched on logic circuits), whereas the PC is
multi-purpose and can be programmable in a number of ways to perform a
wide variety of tasks.
A
computer must be given instructions in a “language” it can
understand, this "language" is ultimately based on the binary code system. There could be other
methods, but definitely the binary system is by far the most effective
way to interact with the machine. Communication
through 0s and 1s is properly called machine language, but at the same
time it also looks and works in a way that is absolutely not fit for
humans. A single instruction may look something like this:
100111011011010001111011. And a program usually contains thousands of
instructions. Definitely not very user-friendly
for the programmer. But this was the case for the very
first programmers in the 1950s.
Some
years later, programmers found a short-cut to this toilsome work: they
invented the so-called assembly language. Each machine-language
command was given a mnemonic code (made up of three letters), this
looked more in tune with the way human beings communicate, and
represented a great leap forward in the field of programming. However,
the problem was that each type of CPU had to use its own assembly
language, and whenever a programmer had to work with a different
microprocessor he had to learn a new encoding system.
Later
developments led to the so-called high-level languages. They are much
more convenient to handle by programmers because the encoding system
uses English-like words, for example PRINT,
RUN, SORT and so on. The commands are then interpreted by special
programs that translate them into the kind of machine language that the computer
can understand.
One
of the most famous and widespread programming language of this kind
was the BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code),
invented in the early 1960s and meant to be used by non-professional
programmers. In a number of successive versions it has been used till
now.
Of
course, for professional purposes a number of more sophisticated
programming languages have been developed. To mention just a few they
are: FORTRAN, COBOL, PASCAL, C++, LOGO and so on.
Nowadays we have Java,
Visual-Basic, SQL, and others. A lot of them have been
designed to write programs also for the Internet, and they are getting
more and more user-friendly.