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Re: What`s computer programming...

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  Re: What`s computer programming... Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-02-22 21:09 +0000
    Re: What`s computer programming... Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-02-22 22:10 +0000
      Re: What`s computer programming... "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2015-02-23 09:29 +0100

#5236 — Re: What`s computer programming...

On 23/02/15 00:04, Ramine wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
> I was thinking more, and i have come to an interesting subject..
>
> I was asking myself what`s computer programming ?

It is the art, craft, or profession of creating a list of instructions 
that a computer can use to accomplish a particular task.

> And after i have learned to program and after i have invented many
> algorithms and parallel libraries ...
>
> I think i am able now to define more what is computer programming...
>
> I will define it like the following:
>
> Computer programming is like "robotics", when you construct a robot
> you have to give it legs and hands and motors etc.

No, it isn't like that at all.

> and you have to learn
> it how to behave by incorporating in it "knowledge" to give it  the
> ability to behave in different ways: such as walk , and jump etc. so
> computer programming is like robotics , because when you construct a
> computer program it is like constructing a robot, you have to construct
> every parts of the program by constructing "objects" and there
> "properties", and you have to give your program "knowlege" by
> implementing the "methods" of the objects to give your program the
> ability to behave in different ways, like a robot... this is how i can
> define programming , it's like robotics...


No, it's more like creating a list of instructions that a computer can 
use to accomplish a particular task.

Trying to define it in terms of robotics is unhelpful, because a robot 
is basically a computer with peripherals that can move, and you have to 
program the movements. The definition thus becomes recursive, and not in 
a helpful way.

-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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#5238

On 23/02/15 00:45, Ramine wrote:
> On 2/22/2015 1:09 PM, Richard Heathfield wrote:
>> No, it's more like creating a list of instructions that a computer can
>> use to accomplish a particular task.
>>
>> Trying to define it in terms of robotics is unhelpful, because a robot
>> is basically a computer with peripherals that can move, and you have to
>> program the movements. The definition thus becomes recursive, and not in
>> a helpful way.
>
>
>
> I don't agree with you..
>
> Because what's a physical robot ?

Broadly speaking, it's a computer with manipulable peripherals.


> and what's a computer ?

Originally, it was a device for performing calculations. It may now be 
more appropriate to consider it a device for processing simple 
mathematical models (for suitably complex definitions of 'simple'). 
Those mathematical models may be simplifications of the real world (to 
take a somewhat literal example, a driving simulator), or they may be 
arificial constructs (such as the Web), or they may be fantasy 
'realities' (such as in video games), but they all boil down to 
mathematical models that the computer moves from one state to another 
according to a (hopefully) well-defined list of instructions.

>
>
> When you construct a computer program , you also move and mix and
> work with bit and bytes and you also do measurements on the bits and
> bytes and on conceptual representations and numerical representations of
> physical objects to construct other objects from bits and bytes and from
> objects and from methods and conceptual representations and numerical
> representations of physical objects and you have to incorporate
> knowledge in it to give it the ability to behave in different ways...

The machine itself has no knowledge whatsoever. It can follow 
instructions, provided that the instructions are astoundingly simple.

> so

False premises lead to unreliable conclusions.

> a computer program is like a physical microprocessor or a computer

A computer program can emulate a physical microprocessor or indeed a 
computer, but it is not /like/ them.

<snip>


-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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#5245

On Sun, 22 Feb 2015 22:10:20 +0000, Richard Heathfield wrote:

> On 23/02/15 00:45, Ramine wrote:

>> Because what's a physical robot ?
> 
> Broadly speaking, it's a computer with manipulable peripherals.

+ autonomous (can function without operator's intervention etc)

>> a computer program is like a physical microprocessor or a computer
> 
> A computer program can emulate a physical microprocessor or indeed a 
> computer, but it is not /like/ them.

Moreover, they are fundamentally different, it is the difference between an
entity/object and a term describing the entity.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de

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