Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

By : Joakim Wassberg
4 (1)
Book Image

Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners

4 (1)
By: Joakim Wassberg

Overview of this book

Learning how to code has many advantages, and gaining the right programming skills can have a massive impact on what you can do with your current skill set and the way you advance in your career. This book will be your guide to learning computer programming easily, helping you overcome the difficulties in understanding the major constructs in any mainstream programming language. Computer Programming for Absolute Beginners starts by taking you through the building blocks of any programming language with thorough explanations and relevant examples in pseudocode. You'll understand the relationship between computer programs and programming languages and how code is executed on the computer. The book then focuses on the different types of applications that you can create with your programming knowledge. You'll delve into programming constructs, learning all about statements, operators, variables, and data types. As you advance, you'll see how to control the flow of your programs using control structures and reuse your code using functions. Finally, you'll explore best practices that will help you write code like a pro. By the end of this book, you'll be prepared to learn any programming language and take control of your career by adding coding to your skill set.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Computer Programs and Computer Programming
6
Section 2: Constructs of a Programming Language
7
Chapter 5: Sequence – The Basic Building Block of a Computer Program
14
Section 3: Best Practices for Writing High-Quality Code
Appendix B: Dictionary
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W

How programming languages have evolved?

Between 1943 and 1945, Konrad Zuse, a German civil engineer, developed a programming language called Plankalkül. Even though this language was not implemented at the time, it held the foundations for what we now call high-level programming languages and was an inspiration for other languages that followed.

In late 1953, John W. Backus, an American computer scientist working at IBM, submitted a proposal to his superiors to develop an alternative to assembly. In 1954, Backus and his team published the first draft specification for this language, and in April 1957, the first version of the FORTRAN (the all caps naming standard later changed to Fortran) programming language was released. At first, this language was met with some skepticism as it could not produce programs that ran as fast as the ones written in Assembly. However, the fact that programs written in this new language had far fewer lines and were more comfortable to write and...