computoman

Computers are getting smaller and smaller. We use them to solve problems, but you still have to give them instructions to do what you want. Computer languages are a way to give the computer the instructions you want it to use.  The first computer I ever used was at college. Then they did not even have a computer major. Mostly you majored in math. The first computer was large and bulky. We used punch cards to get computer code into the machine. In fact, we used a language call Fortran (Formula translation) which was the forerunner of a more recent language called Basic (Beginner’s all purpose instruction code).  Fortran is still actually around and you can still use it. On Linux it is sometimes called gfortran. Basic has evolved into so many variations that are too many to mention though you may have heard of VB.net. Personally I prefer Quickbasic variations for my non-gui systems. The next computer I used in the professional world was the Datapoint Terminal i...

Assembly language is closer to what a computer understands and less like what a human would understand. but it is fast and compact. when assembled and linked vs a compiled higher level program. Assembly language version of Hello world:   section .data hello: db 'Hello world!',10 ; 'Hello world!' plus a linefeed character helloLen: equ $-hello ; Length of the 'Hello world!' string ; (I'll explain soon) section .text global _start _start: mov eax,4 ; The system call for write (sys_write) mov ebx,1 ; File descriptor 1 - standard output mov ecx,hello ; Put the offset of hello in ecx mov edx,helloLen ; helloLen is a constant, so we don't need to say ; mov edx,[helloLen] to get it's actual value int 80h ; Call the kernel mov eax,1 ; The system call for exit (sys_exit) mov ebx,0 ; Exit with return ...

BASIC (standing for B eginner's A ll Purpose S ymbolic I nstruction C ode) was written (invented) in 1963, at Dartmouth College, by mathematicians John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtzas as a teaching tool for undergraduates. BASIC has been one of the most commonly used computer programming languages, a simple computer language considered an easy step for students to learn before more powerful languages such as FORTRAN . (formula translation) You can read more about the evolution of BASIC at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC . My first computer language was Fortran running on IBM type big iron. Came home from college and saw that my younger brother had purchased a home computer. It was a TRS-80 and came with built in BASIC. I asked my brother how to use it and he stated read the manual. So the next couple of days I devoured the information from the text. BASIC was very much like Fortran, so the transition to learn it was fairly easily. Ended up with the limited memory of...

Computers are getting smaller and smaller. We use them to solve problems, but you still have to give them instructions to do what you want. Computer languages are a way to give the computer the instructions you want it to use.  The first computer I ever used was at college. Then they did not even have a computer major. Mostly you majored in math. The first computer was large and bulky. We used punch cards to get computer code into the machine. In fact, we used a language call Fortran (Formula translation) which was the forerunner of a more recent language called Basic (Beginner's all purpose instruction code).  Fortran is still actually around and you can still use it. On Linux it is sometimes called gfortran. Basic has evolved into so many variations that are too many to mention though you may have heard of VB.net. Personally I prefer Quickbasic variations for my non-gui systems. The next computer I used in the Professional world was the Datapoint Terminal in the days o...