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Happy Programming!

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Programming Fundamentals

To learn programming, you must first understand computer programs and the activities involved in writing them.

A program is a series of instructions that tells the computer of what to do. It contains commands that direct or instruct the computer to perform specific tasks, such as recording of raw scores of students, calculating the salary of employees, and printing of sales reports.

Software (general term used to refer to a collection of programs) is classified as systems software or applications software. Example of systems software are operating systems which include Windows, Linux and Macintosh that manage your computer, and utility systems like device drivers that control your audio, video and network devices. Applications software on the other hand are programs used for specific applications, such as Word for creating and printing documents, Excel for preparing worksheets, PowerPoint for slideshow presentations, Photoshop for editing photos and Media player for playing music or watching movies. You can find most of these programs in the Program Files folder of your hard drive. Programmers who develop such programs can also be classified as systems programmer and applications programmer.

Programming is a problem solving activity. You start by knowing the requirements of the program, identifying its scope and the problem to be solved, and then formulating a solution to the problem. Program requirements include input, processing, and output requirements. The data required as input, the operations to be performed in processing the data, and the information to be generated as output are some of the important things you have to think of when writing programs. The accuracy of the program's output is always dependent on the correctness of the input data. This means that incorrect data will result to incorrect output, thus the term "garbage in, garbage out" or GIGO is coined. Mathematical and logical expressions must also be clearly specified so as to avoid logic errors that are sometimes difficult to debug.

There is a particular sequence of activities to be performed when writing a program. You have to design first the algorithm or program logic before implementing it in code. Algorithm is the step-by-step procedure in solving the problem. It is like a recipe to be followed when you cook your favorite food. Program flowchart and pseudo-code are used to specify the algorithm during logic formulation. When you are done with your design, coding or the actual writing of program code will follow.

A programming language is used in writing the code of your program. You can select from a variety of programming languages such as C++, Java and Visual Basic. Personally, I used C# for developing business applications, but Java and Visual Basic are used in the courses that I handle in the academe.

We use a programming language to express our instructions to the computer. These instructions are in a human-readable but very specific format and must follow a correct syntax or structure. Syntax errors prevent your code from compiling. The program statements you specified in your program constitute the source code that must be compiled and translated into object code. These intermediate codes are linked with other object files (modules or classes) to become an executable code. This executable code is the file that is executed directly by the operating system, or managed by a run-time environment. The language compiler and linker are tools that are already built in the programming language that you use. Software development tools nowadays like Microsoft Visual Studio, Android Studio, NetBeans and Eclipse, have sophisticated Integrated Development Environments or IDEs, with features and functionalities such as dynamic and interactive debugger, intellisense and code completion features, very rich designer tools and reporting facilities, help system and online support to make you a more productive programmer. Most big companies used these tools in developing their distributed and enterprise systems.

Major players in the software business such as Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe continue to develop their software products to gain competitive advantage in the market. This competition promotes innovation of their products in which the sure winners are the users of these tools.

When writing a program, you must apply a particular programming paradigm that will guide you in the entire program development. A paradigm is an approach or style in programming. In the early times, procedural-programming was widely used. You develop the program by writing procedures or functions that perform the required task. The C programming language was popular in writing procedural programs. At present, object-oriented programming becomes the standard in developing high-end and sophisticated solutions. C++, Java and .NET programming languages like Visual Basic and C# are used in developing object-oriented applications. In OOP, your program is made up of objects or software components that contain both data and operations. These objects can interact and send messages with one another to accomplish a particular goal in the business. When developing desktop, mobile, and web applications, the object-oriented way of designing and coding makes programming more manageable than ever before.

In this article, you have learned the fundamentals of programming. To wrap it up, a program is made up of instructions that a computer can execute. A program is also called software which is classified as systems software and applications software.

There are certain activities in programming that must be followed in writing a program. Algorithm is first designed before going to the actual writing of code. When you write your code, a programming language is used to specify the instructions or program statements that will be carried out by the computer. Program source code are compiled and linked to other objects to become an executable code. There are sophisticated software development tools that could help you become more productive in writing software. These tools are constantly being developed by big software companies.

A good programming model is necessary in writing a good program. Procedural programming is still being used for small and simple programs but OOP or object-oriented programming methodology becomes the industry standard for developing enterprise-level and complex systems.

You learn best in programming by actually doing it. You have to get your hands dirty with code. :-)

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The Net and the Web

The Internet has revolutionized communication. Back in the early  times, cave walls and scrolls were used to keep records of history and   activities of people. With the invention of the printing press, radio,   telephone and television, widespread dissemination of information was   made possible. Now that we have the computer and high-speed   telecommunication systems, information publishing has become even better and faster on a global scale. Internet or simply called the "Net" is an interconnection of computer networks  that can be accessed by people around the world. It uses wired or  wireless connection that connects computers and network devices. You can connect on the Net using your PC and smartphone. There are billions of  computers and devices connected on the Net, some are designated as  servers and most are client devices. Clients request services from servers, just like customers request food services from restaurants.  Servers provide services such as email, application, database and web  services. When you access Facebook to browse your network of friends or  download and upload some files, you are actually using the web and file  services of that site. When you check your email in Yahoo!, you are  using its mail service. When you search for information in Google, you  are using a database service on its search engine. Websites with  millions of users worldwide have server farms and data centers to manage requests and store its information. Some servers are dedicated for  domain name service and web hosting. If you want to locate the server  that publishes the website that you want to access, you must know its  server name or domain name. The Uniform Resource Locator or URL contains the protocol and the name of the server that make up the Internet  address of the site you want to access. A good example is  https://www.facebook.com. :-) The  computers and network devices both servers and clients, use protocols to communicate with each other. Protocols are rules or standards for  communication between network devices. Some common protocols are HTTP or  Hypertext Transfer Protocol for web access, FTP or File Transfer  Protocol for file transfer, SMTP or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, for  email. Data packets are used to carry the data to be transmitted  back and forth from server to client. A proxy server is used to control  which data packets are allowed to pass through on a company's network.   Certain ports are opened such as port 80 for web access, port 25 for   mail, and some ports are intentionally blocked to implement network   security. What about the WWW? The World Wide Web or simply called the "Web" is a system for publishing  information on the Internet. Websites are collection of web pages of  certain companies or individuals that are stored on web servers. The web pages contain the information that we access on a website. The content  of a web page has many formats such as text, graphics, audio, video and  animation. The web content are defined using HTML or HyperText Markup  Language and are displayed or rendered using web browsers such as  Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. Most companies use websites to have an Internet presence to promote   their business. They take advantage of web technologies to advertise and market their products and services. Facebook and Google generate its   revenues mostly from its advertisers or sponsors. Companies have also   installed e-commerce systems to connect to their customers, suppliers   and business partners. Online ordering system and online banking system are just some of the examples of these web applications. The Web  is characterized by its features and functionalities. It started with  HTML which created and linked static web pages using hyperlinks then  JavaScript and CSS to provide interactivity and style. Dynamic content was made possible because of  server-side development tools such as PHP, J2EE and ASP.NET. Relational  Database Management Systems such as MySQL Server, MS SQL Server and  Oracle are used extensively to support social networking sites and cloud computing. These software technologies have contributed much in the  development of sophisticated web applications. The Web has also  some issues about security and connectivity. There are lots of hackers  and viruses that are "on the wild" on the Net that create security  threats and risks to people and organizations. That is why WWW is also  called the Wild Wide Web. Due to the increasing demand of Internet  connection, there is a great challenge for Internet Service Providers or ISPs on how to cater such demand and at the same time provide quality  services to its subscribers. WWW could also mean World Wide Wait to  those who are affected by poor and erratic Internet connection. Setting up websites has been easier nowadays due to some content management  systems or website templates that are widely and freely available such  as WordPress and Joomla!, and the inexpensive web hosting fees offered  by web hosting providers. These provide many opportunities for people  who have skills not only in web design and development but also in  content writing. There are lots of content writers and bloggers around  the world writing different topics of interests for certain companies  and organizations. Most  people have referred to the Net and the Web as the same entities. Technically, they are not. You can think of the Net as an interconnected computer systems that store information and run programs. On the other  hand, the Web is a system for organizing and accessing information on  the Net. Think of the Net as the hardware component and the Web as the  software component. Anyway, we are free to use those terms  interchangeably, provided it should be used in the right context. In this article, I have presented to you a brief description of the   Internet and its services. Protocols and data packets were also   mentioned. The World Wide Web has provided us vast amount of information of any topic we can imagine. It also created opportunities as well as   risks both for companies and individuals. I plan to write an article about web application development as soon as I have the time, so stay tuned.