My chosen topic to learn
more about is programming languages.
Programming connects to the fundamentals of IT simply because information
technology is built off the idea of programming languages and how they allow us
to build hardware and software to make our lives easier. Through programming we can create programs
that allow us to create large volumes of text without having to write it down
on paper or another medium which can be ruined if there is a mistake. It allows us to gain access information
through webpages that are programmed to be easy to use and link to databases
all over the world. Without the growth
of programming languages, the age of computers would never have been able to
progress as far as it has and our ability to share information would be much more
limited than it currently is.
Programming languages are
at the forefront of computer design and function. The first computers that were built required
something to tell it what to do and how to do it. The
person that was credited with creating the first programming language called
the Algorithm for the Analytical Engine was Ada Lovelace (OnlinecollegePlan.com
(2020)). She was assisting another inventor
named Charles Babbage who designed the analytical engine to compute
numbers. Ada Lovelace recognized that
the Analytical Engine had the potential to do other tasks if the numbers could
be used to represent other functions (OnlinecollegePlan.com (2020)). Because of this basic programming we have been
able to expand our programming languages to control how the hardware in electronics
function and how the software that is used in any electronic device that you
can interact with functions.
There are so many
different types of programming languages that allow us to interact with
computers in different ways. Languages such
as Python, C, C++, C#, Java, Java Script, etc… give programmers different
options and sequences to use to achieve their desired goal when trying to
program how a piece of hardware or how a specific software application will
act. In programming there is a specific type
of programming known as visual programming languages that allow a programmer to
create a program through a visual representation that utilizes the text-based
languages on the back end. This type of programming
is generally used to teach new programmers how to program and create an entry
point into the more complex text-based programming options. But as computers have started moving into
just about every job field in the world it is becoming more important to make
programming more user friendly. There is
a case study that was conducted in the industrial sector around programming
with robotics to allow someone with little to no programming to create a
program that would allow a robot to perform a task and then be re-assigned to a
new task (Mayr-Dornn, C. Winterer, M. Salomon, C. Hohensinger, D. Ramler, R
(June 2021)). Through the study the testers
imported a complex robotics language known as EPL source program and import it
into the Block language Blockly. This
allowed them to determine if a simple block language would be able to support a
complex language. The test was successful
showing that someone with little or no experience would be able to create a
complex task for an industrial robot (Mayr-Dornn, C. Winterer, M. Salomon, C.
Hohensinger, D. Ramler, R (June 2021)).
Data bases can be extremely
useful for storing and organizing large quantities of data or a real time
consumer if the proper programming cannot be used. Having been in the IT field for quite a while
this is something, I have been able to interact with quite a bit. I have had to go through a database and add
in large amounts of data one at a time because of the inability to create code
to automate the task. I have had the
opportunity to create code to import the data instead as well. Being able to write a program to import data
into the appropriate tables and link the unique keys creates a system that allows
you to easily find the data you are looking for and associate it with other
information you may need. Having to do
this kind of task manually makes you wonder why you are using a computer at all
since it seems just as time consuming as searching through a book line by line.
The last concept to consider
with computer programming is the security aspect. Through proper programming you can configure
switches, routers, proxy servers, and other network equipment to control the
flow of data within an environment in order to protect it from potentially harmful
data or unwanted user access. Being able
to keep people from getting into a network is probably the most important
aspect of cyber security. Even if they
have the password to important data if they cannot get to the data to use the
password then it is still safe. Within a
business environment this kind of protection is created through unique user
credentials and restricting how people are able to access certain areas within
the network as well as blocking access to specific high-risk areas from outside
of the organization’s intranet. Simple
security measure like this can be the difference between someone being able to
launch an attack and them being blocked from even trying.
References
-
Mayr-Dornn, C. Winterer, M. Salomon, C.
Hohensinger, D. Ramler, R (June 2021)). Considerations
for using Block-Based Languages for Industrial Robot Programming – a Case Study,
2021 IEEE/ACM 3rd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering
(RoSE), pp. 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1109/RoSE52553.2021.00008
-
Onlinecollegeplan.com (2020), A History of
Computer Programming Languages, https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/computer-programming-languages/
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