Programs

                   Programs

The defining features of modern computers today are that they can be programmed. This means that the in the computer will be installed instructions that the computer will have to process, and perform. Most machines today use different languages to be programmed. These languages are not common languages they are programming languages. These languages often don’t make sense if they are spoken out loud, because they are composed of “words”, numbers, and commands. Here is an example of a code, written in the visual basic language:

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There are many different and more complex programming languages that allow you to program more complex programs and applications. This is the concept that your computer uses to perform basic functions, and tasks.

Programming Languages

          As I mentioned before there are many different languages, which are used to program, but there are also different types. Low-level programming languages are unique to the type of computer they are programmed for, they are relatively simple and can only be read by the type of the computer they are programmed for. Some of these languages include ARM, MIPS, and x86. High-Level Programming Languages are much more complex. Writing codes in these languages are much more difficult as they are longer. Although they are longer they are able to “express the needs of the programmer more conveniently” meaning that the errors are reduced. Video games use high level programming languages. Some of these languages include Ada, BASIC, C, C++, and Java.

             Various High Level Programming Languages

Stored Program Technology

        Most commands that a computer executes are relatively simple. These commands are read from the computers memory and are executed in the order they were programmed. Although they perform simple operations they also perform specialized instructions such as, moving back part way through the program and starting from there instead of from the beginning. This type of technology is called stored program architecture, and it is used by most RAM- based computers. This type of programming architecture, is much more efficient than imputing information manually as you can code a program to do the task much faster. Since the computer is programmed it rarely makes mistakes making it much more efficient.