INTRODUCTION TO
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
By : Wajiha Arif
▪ A computer is a device that can perform computations and
make logical decisions phenomenally faster than human
beings can. Many of today’s personal computers can
perform billions of calculations in one second—more than a
human can perform in a lifetime.
▪ Supercomputers are already performing thousands of
trillions (quadrillions) of instructions per second! To put that
in perspective, a quadrillion-instruction-per-second computer
can perform in one second more than 100,000 calculations
for every person on the planet! And—these “upper limits” are
growing quickly!
▪ Computers process data under the control of sets of
instructions called computer programs. These programs
guide the computer through orderly sets of actions specified
by people called computer programmers.
▪ The programs that run on a computer are referred to as
software.
▪ A computer consists of various devices referred to as
hardware (e.g., the keyboard, screen, mouse, hard disks,
memory, DVDs and processing units).
▪ Scientific Industry
▪ Business Application
▪ Education
▪ Entertainment
▪ Banks
▪ Communication
▪ Engineering
▪ Medical Science
▪ Books Publications
Regardless of differences in physical appearance, computers can be
envisioned as divided into various logical units.
▪Input Unit
▪Output Unit
▪Central Processing Unit(CPU)
o Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
o Secondary Storage Unit
▪Hard disk
o Memory Unit
▪RAM
▪ROM
Software is :
• Set of instructions (computer programs) that when executed
provide desired features, function, and performance;
• A data structures that enable the programs to adequately
manipulate information, and
• Descriptive information in both hard copy and virtual forms that
describes the operation and use of the programs.
There are two main categories of software i.e.,
Application programs and system programs.
i. Application program
ii. System program
▪ System software are mainly designed for managing
system/Hardware resources
▪ Programming of system software is complex
▪ A computer cannot run without system software
▪ System software do not depend on application software
▪ Application software are designed to accomplish task for a specific
purpose
▪ Programming of application software is comparatively easy
▪ Application software depend on system software and cannot run without
system software
▪ Application software can be designed on demand or open source.
Computer programming is the
process of writing program by
professionals i.e. programmers to
instructs computers how to perform.
The resultant program would be
application or system
program/Software.
A programming language defines set of rules for
instructing computers or computing device to perform
specific tasks. There are two types of programming
language.
i. Low Level Language
• Assembly Level Language
• Machine Level Language
II. High Level Language
i. Low level language
▪ Examples are :
▪ Machine language (binary 0 & 1)
▪ Assembly language (Symbolic)
▪ It is considered as a machine-friendly language.
▪ It requires an assembler that would translate instructions.
▪ It is not portable.
▪ It is difficult to understand.
▪ It is difficult to debug.
▪ It consumes less memory.
II. High level language
▪ It can be considered as a programmer-friendly language.
▪ It requires a compiler/interpreter to be translated into
machine code.
▪ It can be ported from one location to another.
▪ It is easy to understand.
▪ It is easy to debug.
▪ It is less memory efficient, i.e., It consumes more memory
in comparison to low-level languages
“facts and statistics collected together for
reference or analysis”
It is defined as the quantities, characters, or symbols on
which operations are performed by a computer, which may be
stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and
recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording
media.
Data can be of different
types depending on your
area of research
DATA HIERARCHY
Data items processed by computers
form a data hierarchy that becomes
larger and more complex in structure as
we progress from bits to characters to
fields, and so on.
BIT
The smallest data item in a computer can assume the value 0 or the
value 1. Such a data item is called a bit. It is remarkable that the
impressive functions performed by computers involve only the
simplest manipulations of 0s and 1s.A bit is the smallest unit of the
data in a computer and a bit has a single binary value either 0 or 1.
Character
Digits, letters and special symbols are known as characters. The
computer’s character set is the set of all the characters used to write
programs and represent data items. Computers process only 1s and
0s, so a computer’s character set represents every character as a
pattern of 1s and 0s.
1 character is equal to 8 bits = 1 bytes.
Fields and record
• Just as characters are composed of bits, fields are composed
of characters or bytes. A field is a group of characters or bytes
that conveys meaning.
• Several related fields can be used to compose a record.
Files
A file is a group of related records. A file contains arbitrary data in
arbitrary formats.
Computer : A computer is a machine that can store and process
information. Computer is general purpose machine intended to perform
computational task.
Instructions are sequence of steps.
Program is an organized sequence of instructions that a computer can
execute or interpret.
Example :
✓ Microsoft word is a word processing program that allows users to
create and write documents.
✓ A browser, allows to view web page .
Programmer who writes program.
Application series of computer program.