Program Design

Hardware

The term hardware describes the physical parts of your computer which you can physically touch or see such as your monitor, case, disk drives, microprocessor and other physical parts.

In the electronics and especially computer industries, computer hardware specifically means the physical or tangible parts of the equipment, such as circuit boards, keyboards, monitors etc., in contrast to non-physical software running on the computer or other device.

Software

The term software describes the programs that run on your system. This includes your computer operating system and other computer programs which run. Software is written in a computer language (such as Basic, C, Java, or others) by programmers. The computer language is in a text format and can be read by a person although if you do not understand the structure and rules of the language you may not understand it very well. Once a program is written, an operation is performed on it which is called compiling. Compiling is the process of changing the textual written language into a binary language which can be understood by the computer.

Writing these text files and converting them to computer readable files is the way operating systems and most application programs are created.

DATA PROCESSING CYCLE.

processing cycle

Sequence of steps performed repeatedly by a computer in the execution of a program. The computer's central processing unit (CPU) continuously works through a loop, involving fetching a program instruction from memory, fetching any data it needs, operating on the data, and storing the result in the memory, before fetching another program instruction.

The data processing cycle

The data processing cycle is the order in which data is processed. There are four stages:-



Programming languages

1. PHP What it is: An open-source, interpretive, server-side, cross-platform, HTML scripting language, especially well-suited for Web development as it can be embedded into HTML pages. Why you should learn it: Its particularly widely used. "High-speed scripting with caching, augmented with compiled code plug-ins (such as can be done with Perl and PHP) is where the future is. Building Web apps from scratch using C or COBOL is going the way of the dinosaur," said Duquaine. Job availabilities: 1,152*

2. C#

What it is: A general-purpose, compiled, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET initiative, it evolved from C and C++ Why you should learn it: Its an essential part of the .Net framework. "Learning C#, which is just Java with a different name plate, is critical if you heavily use Microsoft," said Duquaine. Job availabilities: 5,111

3. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)

What it is: Though technically not a programming language, AJAX uses XHTML or HTML, JavaScript and XML to create interactive Web applications. Why you should learn it: Ever since Google Maps put AJAX, well, on the map, the requests for AJAX-knowledgeable pros went through the roof. "The demand for AJAX knowledge is huge because its so damned hard to learn," said Huckaby. Of note, Microsoft announced recently plans to release a tool named Atlas that will make AJAX easier to implement. "If Microsofts Atlas tool is successful, it would bring the extreme complexity and annoyance of AJAX to the average worker," said Huckaby. Job availabilities : 1,106

4. JavaScript

What it is: Not to be confused with Java, JavaScript is a an object-oriented, scripting programming language that runs in the Web browser on the client side. Its smaller than Java, with a simplified set of commands, easier to code and doesnt have to be compiled. Why you should learn it: Embedded into HTML, its used in millions of Web pages to validate forms, create cookies, detect browsers and improve the design. With its simplicity to learn as well as wide use, its considered a great bang for your educational buck. Job availabilities: 4,406

5. Perl

What it is: Perl is an open-source, cross-platform, server-side interpretive programming language used extensively to process text through CGI programs. Why you should learn it: Perls power in processing of piles of text has made it very popular and widely used to write Web server programs for a range of tasks. "Learning some form of scripting language, such as Perl or PHP is critical if you are doing Web apps," said Duquaine. Job availabilities: 4,810

6. C

What it is: A standardized, general-purpose programming language, its one of the most pervasive languages and the basis for several others (such as C++). Why you should learn it: "Learning C is crucial. Once you learn C, making the jump to Java or C# is fairly easy, because a lot of the syntax is common. Also, a lot of C syntax is used in scripting languages," said Duquaine. Job availabilities: 6,164, including all derivatives

7. Ruby and Ruby on Rails

What they are: Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, open-source programming language; Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web application framework written in Ruby that closely follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. Why you should learn it: With a focus on simplicity, productivity and letting the computers do the work, in a few years, its usage has spread quickly. As a bonus, many find it easy to learn. Job availabilities : 210 and 54, respectively

8. Java

What it is: An object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. Why you should learn it: Hailed by many developers as a "beautiful" language, it is central to the non-.Net programming experience. "Learning Java is critical if you are non-Microsoft," said Duquaine. Job availabilities: 14,408

9. Python

What it is: An interpreted, dynamically object-oriented, open-source programming language that utilizes automatic memory management. Why you should learn it: Designed to be a highly readable, minimalist language, many say it has a sense of humor (spam and eggs, rather than foo and bar), Python is used extensively by Google as well as