The History of Software Programming
The first generation of codes used to program a computer,
was called machine language or machine code, it is the
only language a computer really understands, a sequence
of s and s that the computer's controls interprets as
instructions, electrically. The second generation of
code was called assembly language, assembly language
turns the sequences of s and s into human words like
'add'. Assembly language is always translated back into
machine code by programs called assemblers.
The third generation of code, was called high level
language or HLL, which has human sounding words and
syntax (like words in a sentence). In order for the
computer to understand any HLL, a compiler translates
the high level language into either assembly language
or machine code. All software programming languages
need to be eventually translated into machine code for
a computer to use the instructions they contain.
As the end user you do not see the code used to create
computer software programs. However, you do use the
results and the end products of today's software programming
are soft programs that are easy to use by the consumer.
Below you can find several software programs listed,
each article discusses the history of software programming
and the lives of the software programmers behind your
favorite software programs.
Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of taking a software
program apart and analyzing it with the intention to
construct a new program that does the same thing without
actually copying anything from the original and avoiding
copyright or patent infringement.
From
about.com
