Computer Science Unit 1: Introduction to Programming | C Language | Lecture # 1

Unit Introduction

Computers have turned into a significant piece of our day to day routines. They can help us to solve several problems ranging from complex mathematical problems and searching on the internet to controlling and operating satellites and rocket launchers. In reality, computers are not very smart on their own. In order to perform all the tasks, they have to be fed a series of instructions by humans which tell them how to behave and perform when faced with a particular type of problem.

These series of instructions are known as a computer program, software, and the process of feeding or storing these instructions in the computer is known as computer programming. 

The person who knows how to write a computer program correctly is known as a programmer.

Computers cannot understand English, Urdu or any other common language

that humans use for interacting with each other. They have their own special

languages, designed by computer scientists. Programmers write computer

programs in these special languages called programming languages. Java, C,

C++, C#, Python are some of the most commonly used programming languages.

We will be using C language to write computer programs here. This unit

discusses some basics of computer prog ramming using C language.

 

C language was developed by Dennis Ritchie between 1969 and 1973 at

 Bell Labs.

Programming Environment

In order to correctly perform any task, we need to have proper tools. For example

for gardening we need gardening tools and for painting we need a collection of

paints, brushes and canvas. Similarly, we need proper tools for programming.

A collection of all the necessary tools for programming makes up a environment. 

It is essential to setup a programming environment before we start writing programs. It works as a basic platform for us to write and

execute programs.