For lesson 1.3, we are told to choose a complex term that is used within our particular discipline or profession. With this complex term, we have to choose a situation and an audience of “non-technical readers” and be able to write for a specific audience that may not have the technical knowledge of the term I am defining.
For the assignment, we are told to compose a reading situation, parenthetical definition, a sentence definition, and an expanded definition.
Reading Situation:
A software engineer is explaining the term “programming” to investors who care about how the product is made.
Parenthetical Definition:
The software engineer told the team of investors that he would be programming (the process of creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to perform a specific task) to build the application.
Sentence Definition:
Programming is the way to tell a computer what to do.
Expanded definition:
Programming is the task of writing a set of instructions in code to tell a computer how to do something.
The history of programming:
Programming first began around 1883, where the first programming language was created by Ana Lovelace. Lovelace used programming to write an algorithm for her project, the ‘Analytical Engine’ (HP 2018).
How does it work? (Visual and example included)
Programming is done by using a programming language. An individual can program/write a set of instructions, telling the computer how to do something (usually called a source file). Depending on what language you program in, the computer turns those instructions into machine code that the computer can understand using a compiler. Then, the computer executes that machine code and returns back the desired output from the instructions to the user (Buckley, 2021).
For example, we write a set of instructions to tell the computer to print ‘Hello World’. The code is compiled and turned into machine code that the computer can read. Then, the computer executes the code and the computer reads to the user ‘Hello World.’
Figure 1: A process that outlines the process our source code goes through (the code we write)
Reference:
Buckley, Ian. (2021). What Is Coding and How Does It Work?: MUO. Retrieved on January 29, 2022 from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is coding/#:~:text=Almost%20all%20programming%20languages%20work,Hello%2C%20world%20back%20to%20us.
(2018). Computer History: A Timeline of Computer Programming Languages: HP® Tech Takes. HP® Tech Takes. Retrieved on January 29, 2022 from https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/computer-history-programming-languages.
TOPPR. (2021). Interpreter – TOPPR-Guides. Retrieved on January 29, 2021 from https://www.toppr.com/guides/computer-science/computer-fundamentals/system-software/interpreter/.
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