Computer Programming
Computer programming is the craft of writing codes used to perform a meaningful task in computing system. Programming a computer can be performed using different programming languages. There are a lot of programming languages available now, ranging from low-level languages to high level languages. Low-level languages like machine language is a lot harder to program. Because it consist of numerous lines of codes to write when it is just a simple command. For instance, in assembly language when you want the computer to clear the lines it would take up to five to six lines of code. But when you are using high-level language like Turbo C/C++ it would just consist of only one word.
There are a lot of high-level languages like JavaScript, Turbo C/C++ as I mentioned earlier, Pascal, Fortran, BASIC and PHP. But for me when I created my software project I used Visual Basic 6. For me visual basic 6 is a lot easier to learn and it’s easier to use. The command is very easy to familiarize and to memorize. It has a user friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface).
Computer Programming is just a part of a much larger field Software Engineering.
Software Engineering
Software is a Computer programs and associated documentation such as requirements, design models and user manuals. Software products may be developed for a particular customer or may be developed for a general market. There are two types of software. It may be;
v Generic – developed to be sold to a range of different customers. For instance PC software such as Excel or Word.
v Bespoke (custom) – developed for a single customer according to their specification. Like inventory system of a particular business.
New software’s are created by developing new programs, configuring generic software systems or reusing existing software.
Software Engineering is different from computer science in a way that Software engineering is an engineering practice which involves all aspects of software production. While computer science only concerned in theory and fundamentals of software.
Software engineers should adopt a systematic and organised approach to their work and use appropriate tools and techniques depending on the problem to be solved, the development constraints and the resources available.
Software Engineering includes software development process. This is the guidelines or process on how to develop a particular software or system. Software development is not an individual task but it consists of a group to develop software. It should be a team of Designer, Programmer, Tester and the Maintenance.
