• Initially, computer operators had to set the program manually to run…

Punched cards

• At the end of the 1800s, Herman Hollerith invented the punched card, to be automatically read by a machine.
• Instructions were then CODED in the punched card.

Grace Hopper’s proposal

• Later, in 1949, Grace Hopper invented the first programming language: COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language)
  • For example, the user would write: COMPUTE SUM = (1 + 3) DIVIDE SUM BY 2 GIVING AVERAGE
• Crucial to this was the development of the compiler: a program capable of converting a sentence very much like an English phrase (with syntax and semantics) into machine instructions.

So, what’s a code?

• “A program that follows a set of rules” (in order to be correctly interpreted)
• To learn how to program, then, is to learn how to express yourself correctly through the code
  • Notice the origin of the word - codex

Python programming language

• Invented in the early 1990s by Guido van Rossum, named after Monty Python’s Flying Circus
• Open source project
• High-level, general-purpose language
• Widely available, easy to learn, rich in tools and libraries, and portable