2: What Is Programming?

This episode will explain different types of programming in terms that you will be familiar with and then relate everything to computer programming concepts. You might be surprised that you already know how to program. Programming is just the process of creating a set of instructions for a computer to follow. You already know how to follow instructions and give directions. But have you ever followed instructions that no longer applied or left you wondering if you missed something? Maybe your directions said to turn left and there was nothing but a solid wall. As humans, we know how to stop following directions when they are obviously wrong. But computers will run right into that wall. There are levels of programming and this episode explains three levels such as you might encounter when baking a cake. Programming is not as hard as you might think. You can listen to the full episode or read the full transcript below. Transcript Programming is just the process of creating a set of instructions for a computer to follow. You already know how to follow instructions and even help another person when asked for directions. These instructions could help you navigate your way to your destination or give you the steps needed to bake a cake from scratch. But have you ever followed instructions that no longer applied or left you wondering if you missed something? Maybe your directions said to turn left and there was nothing but a solid wall. As humans, we know how to stop following directions when they are obviously wrong. Sometimes we get distracted and can end up in completely the wrong place even though there were multiple obvious clues that something wasn’t quite right. A computer does not have our insight. Even a trained horse will sometimes refuse to obey instructions that it thinks would lead to danger. Computers will do exactly what we tell them to do and continue to follow our instructions until, well, that’s just it. There is no “until.” A computer will continue following instructions right up to the point when the power cord is ripped away. Hold on there! I can hear you say. I can reboot my computer. I can press the reset switch and start it over. I don’t have to unplug it to recover from a mistake. That’s only because a programmer has already provided the computer with instructions to follow when certain finger twisting keys are pressed. The programmer has already provided instructions for what to do when the reset button is pressed. The computer is ALWAYS following instructions. That’s all it knows. It has no awareness or ability to reason on its own. I mentioned that there are different types of programming. Let’s take the example of baking a cake. Recipes have to be either written or spoken and that means there is a language involved. The directions could be in English or in Spanish or something else entirely. At first this might seem like just a matter of replacing each word from one language with its corresponding word from another language but it’s not always so simple. I’m going to deviate for a moment here because I can’t think of a cake recipe that needs rice. But stay with me because this recipe calls for rice in our cake. Now in English, there is just one word for rice. But in other languages, there are separate and distinct words for rice depending on what state it is in. Still in the field? That’s one word. Prepared and ready to cook? That’s another word. Cooked already? You guessed it. That’s another word. This means that the entire structure of the directions can change from one language to another. Just imagine for a moment if English had different words for an egg and the confusion that could arise if the recipe called for a freshly laid egg by accident! Computer programming has different languages and this would be similar to how you could choose to write your programs in C++ or in C#. These are different programming languages