Abstract
Chapter 1 briefly introduces what should be known before starting to learn programming. The chapter first mentions the building blocks of a computer that are relevant to a programmer—i.e., the CPU, the memory and the Von Neumann architecture. The chapter continues by introducing how big the “zoo” of programming languages is, thereby presenting the different paradigms that the “zoo” of programming languages falls into. A discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each paradigm follows where hints are provided to the programmer about how he may choose a programming language based on the nature of the problem. The chapter also talks about the way programs are written and put into action by a computer, after which Python is introduced with a brief historical background and a small interaction.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Oracle machine’ has nothing to do with the world-wide known database company ‘ORACLE’.
- 2.
Actually ‘digital’ does not necessarily mean ‘binary’. But to build binary logic electronic circuits is cheap and easy. So, in time, due to the technological course all digital circuits are built to support binary logic. Hence, ‘digital’ became a synonym for binary electronic circuity.
- 3.
In the binary representation of instructions and data there exists some degree of freedom. Namely,
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what action will be represented by which binary sequence,
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what will be the binary representation for numbers (both floating points and integers)
is a design choice. This choice is made by the CPU manufacturer.
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- 4.
A Graphical User Interface is the set of windows and all the stuff included in the windows that take care of the exchange of information between the user and the program. For example, when you open a browser, a window pops up; that window is the GUI for the browser.
- 5.
From: Chen et al. (2005). Updated by the authors.
- 6.
Reference
Chen Y, Dios R, Mili A, Wu L, Wang K (2005) An empirical study of programming language trends. IEEE Softw 22(3):72–79
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Wien
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Üçoluk, G., Kalkan, S. (2012). The World of Programming. In: Introduction to Programming Concepts with Case Studies in Python. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1343-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1343-1_1
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