how do i write a computer program?

Answer 1

Writing computer programs is an activity that can be done in many different languages. You'll need to pick a language to study. There are many, many languages, and they vary in style as well as in their applicability to different kinds of tasks. I'll start by covering some of the generalities.

You can pick up programming tools for free or pay for them. I would suggest starting wth the free tools, and all of the best known languages have free implementations to get started with, and that's what I'll focus on tools that can mostly be obtained equally easily for Windows, MacOS, and Linux. I'll leave it to you to shop around for commercial tools that suit your interests and needs, or if you want to look at options specific to a particular OS.

To write a computer program you need at least:

* A text editor to write your program.
* A compiler or interpreter to run the programs you write.

There are other kinds of programs that can be useful, but the bare minimum is those two. For a text editor the most readily available options is "Notepad" in Windows, "TextEdit" in MacOS X ("SimpleText" for MacOS 9 and earlier), and "vi", "nano" or "emacs" if you're using Linux, whatever your distribution provides. There are many alternatives to be found if you hunt around.

Some popular starting languages are Java, Perl, Python, and C or C++. An Up-and-coming language that might be of interest is Ruby.

If you have a Linux computer, often a number of these languages are already installed. Many of these languages have websites devoted specifically to them (listed below). Some companies like ActiveState give away tools for Perl and Python. Also, places to look for free software include GNU and Sourceforge.

Also, Wikipedia and Google will be good starting places for general information. Google for the language of your choice and "tutorial", or for general information look it up in Wikipedia.

Good luck and have fun!

Answer 2

a computer program is a set of instructions to the computer. Computer programs are written in human language like English and then translated into machine language, binary so they could be understood by the CPU. This is done by a compiler. To be able to make a program you would need to learn the syntax of a language you are trying to use and different programming strategies, is really not that hard but can be time consuming to learn how to program. There are different programming languages out there, I recommend you learn java or c++.

the following is a program written in Java that outputs the words Hello world on to the screen

class myfirstjavaprog
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
System.out.println("Hello World!");
}
}

to learn more about java go to java.sun.com or search on google, a good site to learn c/c++ is http://www.cprogramming.com they have resources and tutorials to teach you. good luck!

Answer 3

Set up a working environment such as Java or Linux, get a compiler and go nuts...