A Career in Computer Programming

Computer programmers write, test , and maintain detailed instructions that called programs. Programs are what run computers. They tell the computer what info to identify and access, how to porocess it, and what equipment to use. The time it takes to write a program varies. Most programs can be can be written in several hours, while some can take more than a year. Programmers usually work in teams under a senior programmer. They program according to a specifications of a software engineers and systems analysts. They have to be patient persistant, and good under pressure. They have to be able to communicate well to understad what the user wants.

There are 2 types of programmers: applications progrmmers and systems programmers. Applications programmers write aprograms to handle a specific job and revise existing software. An example of this would be a program that tracks inventory in a company. Systems proframmers write programs to maintain and control compuet systems, and database systems. Systems programmers make changes in the sets of instruction that determines how a system will handle the jobs it its given. They also help applications programmers find errors in there programs. Their programs have to work with a variety of operating systems.

Programmers are known by the language they program or the envirnment in which they work. Examples of this would be Java programmer, Database programmer, mainframe programmer, and internet programmer. Ther are many diffenent kinds of programming languages. When computers first came about they used a binary number system which consisted of a bunch of 0's and 1's. Later a new language called assembly language was adoopted instead of the binary system. This system was a lot better because it used the alphabet instead of 0's and 1's. The first so-called high-level language is called FORTRAN (formula translation). It was invented in 1956. It was great for scientists and mathematicians because it was similar to mathematic notations, but hard for the lay person. COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) came next. It was used mainly for business applications. BASIC (Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was easily masterd by the lay person. It is used in schools, businesses, and homes for microcomputer programming. C is a high level alnguage that can be used as assemly language. A lot of commercial software is written using C. C++ writes programs using self-contained collections of data structure or objects. The objects are just changed to produce dfferent programs.