Principles of computer programming

Many years ago an advertisement appeared frequently in popular magazines which displayed a photograph of a man or a woman seated before a piano. The caption below read: "I learned to play in five easy lessons." We are going to learn the principles of computer programming in one easy lesson. We know, of course, that it is possible to learn to play a simple tune, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and a few others, over a period of five weeks, with practice and five easy lessons. This is, however, a limited repertoire. This hoax that one can learn anything in five easy lessons will be perpetuated by this talk. A few simple, but typical, procedures will be examined, and the corresponding computer programs will be outlined. The characteristics of programs in connection with these exercises will be discussed, but it takes years to learn to perform well on a computer.published or submitted for publicatio