Programming vs algorithm

666 bro · 2020-06-16 14:16:04

How programming is different from algorithms?

Jai Ganesh · 2020-06-16 15:26:14

Hi,

(a) 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. Proficient 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.

(b) In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are always unambiguous and are used as specifications for performing calculations, data processing, automated reasoning, and other tasks.

As an effective method, an algorithm can be expressed within a finite amount of space and time, and in a well-defined formal language for calculating a function. Starting from an initial state and initial input (perhaps empty), the instructions describe a computation that, when executed, proceeds through a finite number of well-defined successive states, eventually producing "output" and terminating at a final ending state. The transition from one state to the next is not necessarily deterministic; some algorithms, known as randomized algorithms, incorporate random input.

The concept of algorithm has existed since antiquity. Arithmetic algorithms, such as a division algorithm, was used by ancient Babylonian mathematicians c. 2500 BC and Egyptian mathematicians c. 1550 BC. Greek mathematicians later used algorithms in the sieve of Eratosthenes for finding prime numbers, and the Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers. Arabic mathematicians such as al-Kindi in the 9th century used cryptographic algorithms for code-breaking, based on frequency analysis.

The word algorithm itself is derived from the 9th-century mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, Latinized Algoritmi. A partial formalization of what would become the modern concept of algorithm began with attempts to solve the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem) posed by David Hilbert in 1928. Later formalizations were framed as attempts to define "effective calculability" or "effective method". Those formalizations included the Gödel–Herbrand–Kleene recursive functions of 1930, 1934 and 1935, Alonzo Church's lambda calculus of 1936, Emil Post's Formulation 1 of 1936, and Alan Turing's Turing machines of 1936–37 and 1939.

Agnishom · 2020-06-24 03:19:56

666 bro wrote:

How programming is different from algorithms?

Algorithms are an abstract idea that you have in your mind. Programs are concrete representations of them in a certain programming language.

Does that help?

666 bro · 2020-06-24 14:07:28

Yeah

Agnishom · 2020-06-25 04:53:22

Also, here is a slightly different view:

A researcher of algorithms typically looks at problems taken out of context and tries to understand their mathematical/computational structure.

A software engineer typically has to build a certain software system for a specific real world task. While it is important that he has some idea of how algorithms work, much of his work is usually putting together tools to make information flow the right way.

In essence, algorithms research is rather theoretical in contrast to software engineering which requires more practical expertise.

renevanderlende · 2020-07-01 14:16:43

To understand an automation problem you need to ask many questions (the five Ws) before you can start coding anything. In my IT career I've come to 8:

w8b4udo (wait before you do) who-what-where-when-which-whos-with-why => how

By iterating over those questions, inevitably how to solve the problem will present itself. For IT problems this usually means do some progamming.

Algorithms are a way to solve specific problems programmatically.

pi_cubed · 2020-07-02 01:25:45

666 bro wrote:

How programming is different from algorithms?

pi_cubed wrote:

Hi 666 bro,
In programming we say that we "implement algorithims" into programs, which gives us the idea that they are different. An algorithim is simply a thought process. Programming is implementing the algorithim, or writing it in a language that the interpeter can understand. Think of the programmer as an inventer. The idea for the invention is the algorithim. The invention is the code. Hope this clears things up.

*Sorry for some misspellings*

Last edited by pi_cubed (2020-07-02 01:28:10)

Math Is Fun Forum

#1 2020-06-16 14:16:04

Programming vs algorithm

#2 2020-06-16 15:26:14

Re: Programming vs algorithm

#3 2020-06-24 03:19:56

Re: Programming vs algorithm

#4 2020-06-24 14:07:28

Re: Programming vs algorithm

#5 2020-06-25 04:53:22

Re: Programming vs algorithm

#6 2020-07-01 14:16:43

Re: Programming vs algorithm

#7 2020-07-02 01:25:45

Re: Programming vs algorithm

Board footer