The first use of the word computer was recorded in a book written in 1613.
Until the middle of the 20th century, it referred to "a person who carried out calculations or computations".
From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations.
Who invented the computer?
Computer Programs
Computer programs are everywhere.
Run parts of your car.
Let you check your email.
Your favorite smartphone app.
But what are they, really?
What is a Computer Program?
At its core, a program is a way of getting something done.
One of the ways to accomplish "getting something done" is a list of instructions that tells the computer exactly what to do and allows interaction with human beings.
Those instructions have to be written in a "language" that the computer can understand.
Programming Languages
A programming language is, basically, a set of strings (letters, numbers, commands) that are turned into machine code that the computer can understand.
The language you use for a program depends on a number of things:
How the program will be used.
What you want the program to do.
What languages you know.
Programming Languages
Computers don’t exactly understand programming languages (such as Java or Python). They need to be transformed into the computer language that they can understand.
That computer language is strings of 1’s and 0’s-- binary numbers that most people can’t read easily-- to be able to do anything with them.
For example, the letter 'A' in a computer has the binary representation: 01000001.
Despite being able to decipher those unintelligible strings of 1’s and 0’s, computers are actually pretty dumb.
Programming Languages
For example:
To develop websites, you might use HTML, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP.
To create databases and move information in and out of them, you might use SQL, dBase.
To write applications like Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat, you might use C++, Java
Computers are dumb
Computers can only do what they have instructions for-- and they take those instructions VERY literally.
As a result, you have to tell them every single thing you want them to do and every single thing to take into consideration.
If you leave any instructions out (or put them in the “wrong” order), the results might not be what you expect.
Demonstration
One person is the program, and another person is the computer.
The computer has to do literally what the program says to do!