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The Computer Programming Portal

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Computer programming is the process of accomplishing a specific computing result or to perform a particular computation, usually by designing/building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as analysis, generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the implementation of algorithms in a chosen programming language (commonly referred to as coding). The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task (which can be as complex as an operating system) on a computer, often for solving a given problem. Proficient programming thus usually requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms, and formal logic.

Tasks accompanying and related to programming include testing, debugging, source code maintenance, implementation of build systems, and management of derived artifacts, such as the machine code of computer programs. These might be considered part of the programming process, but often the term software development is used for this larger process with the term programming, implementation, or coding reserved for the actual writing of code. Software engineering combines engineering techniques with software development practices. Reverse engineering is a related process used by designers, analysts, and programmers to understand and re-create/re-implement. (Full article...)

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Did you know?

... that although the suffix automaton, a data structure used in computer science, was introduced in 1983, it appeared in a 1973 scholarly article as an auxiliary structure?
... that Rui Pinto uncovered four terabytes of confidential information about association football finances despite having no formal education in computer science?
... that when Joseph Wood was appointed as head master of Harrow School, he was by far the oldest to be appointed since the retirement of Thomas Thackeray in 1760?
... that the hazards of artificial intelligence include algorithmic bias, blaming humans for machine errors, and human–robot collisions?
... that Keanu Reeves's film roles include a time-travelling slacker, a computer hacker, an exorcist, and a dentist?
... that the first official result for the TPC-C benchmark in 1992 was 54, and now stands at 707 million?

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16 November 2021 – Belarus–European Union relations: Researchers at the American cybersecurity firm Mandiant report that the Belarusian government has ties to the hacker group Ghostwriter, which was accused of targeting various German politicians and ministries in September and has since been accused of launching misinformation campaigns against Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine. (RFE/RL)