Portal:Computer programming

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Introduction

Example of an internet chess program, Lichess, showing artificial intelligence programming – if the white bishop at b3 moves to a2, capturing the black knight, then the program is designed to find the most advantageous move for black, very likely capturing the bishop with the b1 pawn. Black has just moved a pawn to c2.

Computer programming is the process of designing and building an executable computer program to accomplish a specific computing result. 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. The process of programming thus often 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 the opposite process. A hacker is any skilled computer expert that uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem, but it can also mean a security hacker in common language.

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Did you know?

... that WSFN, "Which Stands for Nothing", was created to control robots?
... that Keanu Reeves's film roles include a time-travelling slacker, a computer hacker, an exorcist, and a dentist?
... that after writing a programming language used to publish books on the humanities, Michael Barnett wrote the SNAP language to teach programming to humanities students?
... that investment banker Peter W. Smith contacted Russian hackers in an unsuccessful attempt to locate missing emails from Hillary Clinton's computer system?
... that the original article describing Berlekamp's root finding algorithm did not contain a proof of correctness?
... that computer science lecturer Cynthia B. Lee promoted the use of gender-neutral language across her department at Stanford University?

Computer programming news

22 November 2019 –: Amazon files a lawsuit against the United States Department of Defense for awarding a US$10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft. The company had previously accused the Department of bias in their decision, given CEO Jeff Bezos has been a vocal critic of U.S. President Donald Trump. (Reuters)
31 October 2019 –: Mongolian police arrest 800 Chinese citizens and confiscate hundreds of computers and SIM cards in Ulaanbaatar. Authorities believe they were part of a cybercrime ring involved in illegal gambling, hacking and identity theft, among other activities. (Reuters)
25 October 2019 –: In a move that surprised insiders, Microsoft beats Amazon Web Services to win a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the United States Department of Defense. (Reuters)
29 July 2019 – List of data breaches: Capital One announces that a major data breach occurred on July 19, 2019, by one individual who compromised the data of about 106 million people in the United States and Canada. The Federal Bureau of Investigation have made an arrest after the alleged hacker, 33-year-old Paige Thompson from Seattle, boasted about her actions online. (BBC)
20 June 2019 – Computer ransomware: Riviera Beach, Florida, is paying $600,000 to a hacker who took over local government computers three weeks ago. (CNN)
2 June 2019 –: Google has a cloud services outage that affects Gmail, Snapchat, YouTube and other services in parts of the United States. (CNBC)