1
The First Few Steps
1.1 What Is a Program? And What Is Programming?
Computer Programs Today, most people are experienced with computer programs, typically programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and
Photoshop. The interaction with such programs is usually quite simple and intuitive:
you click on buttons, pull down menus and select operations, drag visual elements
into locations, and so forth. The possible operations you can do in these programs
can be combined in seemingly an infinite number of ways, only limited by your
creativity and imagination.
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Linge, H. P. Langtangen, Programming for Computations - Python,
Texts in Computational Science and Engineering 15,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16877-3_1
1
The First Few Steps
1.1 What Is a Program? And What Is Programming?
Computer Programs Today, most people are experienced with computer programs, typically programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, and
Photoshop. The interaction with such programs is usually quite simple and intuitive:
you click on buttons, pull down menus and select operations, drag visual elements
into locations, and so forth. The possible operations you can do in these programs
can be combined in seemingly an infinite number of ways, only limited by your
creativity and imagination.
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Linge, H. P. Langtangen, Programming for Computations - Python,
Texts in Computational Science and Engineering 15,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16877-3_1
1