Why do we Program?

Computers want to be helpful

• Computers are built to do things for us
  • Designed and wired so that it has one question: what do you want to do next?
• But, we need to speak their language to describe what we want done.
• Computer users just have to pick which programs (instructions) they want to use out of the different program someone else put in the computer.
• A programmer’s job is to serve the user and act as an intermediary between the hardware and the user
  • The hardware of a computer itself isn’t that intelligent

Programmers Anticipate Needs

• Professional programmers trying to sell software also need to imagine what the world might want
• iPhone apps are a market
  • but the app stores are also places where software can be built and exchanged
• They have over 3 billion downloads
• Many programmers have left their jobs to be full-time iPhone app developers
• Programmers know the ways of their program

Why be a programmer?

• To get some task done
  • Example: clean up survey data
• To produce something for others to use - a programming job
  • Example: Fix a performance problem in the Sakai software
  • Or adding a guestbook to a website
• For professional programmers, the motivation may be to build something for everyone else to use
• The main difference between writing code for someone and writing code for yourself is the rigor
• Program: a sequence of stored instructions
  • The computer itself at the lowest level of hardware is not that smart, but there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of giving it the right instructions.

Programs for Humans…

• An example of a program for humans is the macarena!
  • You do the dance moves at the correct beat of the music
• Human beings can operate in an error filled world
  • We can automatically fix errors in text or speech based on what we know
• Computers can not operate in an error filled world
  • So programs have to be perfect

Programs for Python…

• One thing that computers are good but humans are bad at is text analysis
  • This is something we delegate to computers

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