Programming Fundamentals, Lecture 1 Intro to computers, what is computer programming?

Programming:
Computer programming  is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. This source code is written in one or more programming languages. The purpose of programming is to create a set of instructions that computers use to perform specific operations or to exhibit desired behaviors.

Low Level Languages:

Close to the computer hardware.
Difficult to understand & Difficult to write program in low level language.
Work Very fast.

1. Machine Language
2. Assembly Language

Machine Language:
                             Machine languages are the only languages understood by computers. It is the native language of Computers.Sometimes referred to as machine code or object code, machine language is a collection of binary digits or bits that the computer reads and interprets. Machine language is the only language a computer is capable of understanding. 
Assembly Language:

                             Assembly language is a low-level programming language used to interface with computer hardware. The translator used to convert assembly language code into machine language is assembler.

mov ax,4C00h
int 21h

High Level Language:
                             An advanced computer programming language that isn't limited by the computer or for one specific job and is more easily understood. Today, there are dozens of high-level languages; some commonly used high-level languages are BASIC, C, FORTAN, Java, and Pascal. The translator used to convert high level language code into machine language is compiler.

Software

•Software is a part of the computer you cannot touch. 

•Software consist of computer programs and procedures that perform some tasks on your computer.

•Computer software is divided into three basic types. 

•System software

               Operating System is the base program on a computer is considered system software.  It tells the computer how to work or operate.  The operating system  also allows you to load other programs that do specialized tasks on to your computer. (ex. Windows XP and Vista)

 

•Application software

•Application software allows you to accomplish one or more specific (non-computer related) tasks. Such as computer games for entertainment or Microsoft Word for typing. 

•Programming software

•Programming software provides tools to assist a computer programmer in writing programs and software.