Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Third Edition

Chapter 2. Anatomy of a Program

In This Chapter

• The Programmer's Life

• The Need for Programs

• Programs, Programs, Everywhere

• Programs as Directions

• The Language Translator

• Accuracy Is Everything

• The Need for Design

• The Program Language

Before delving into the specifics of programming languages, this chapter attempts to explain what a program really is. A firm grasp of this chapter's material is a prerequisite for moving on to specific programming languages later in this book.

The highlights of this chapter include the following:

• In spite of the wide availability of computer programs, many companies produce their own.

• Perhaps the most difficult part of programming is breaking the problem into detailed steps the computer can follow.

• Two kinds of programming ...