Sockets, switches, and dials
The primary computer systems weren’t coded with phrases or languages, however by manipulating bodily entities to do pretty fundamental calculations. “Programmers” would plug wires into sockets, set switches, flip dials, and spin rotors. It was, on the time, thought-about “ladies’s work” as a result of it was principally clerical. However setting that apart, it was all mechanical in nature. These employees didn’t name themselves “programmers” however “operators” as a result of they bodily operated the machine. There was no separation between the machine and the logic used to run the machine. They have been the identical factor.
It wasn’t till the abstraction of a “pc language” got here alongside that the time period “programmer” was launched. Programming languages allowed for a definite separation between the logic used to execute a program and the bodily gadget used to execute that logic. As computer systems grew to become extra generalized, the notion of being a “pc programmer” arose.
Early on, pc applications have been “linear” or task-bound—that’s, they began at Level A and ran to Level B, most frequently doing calculations of some kind. Certain, they’d branching, looping, and move management, however most frequently the applications began with some enter and produced some output.
