Specialist computer programmers are often known as software engineers, or software developers. The profession has been in existence and expanding for as much time as computers themselves have. With no programs to instruct them, computers would simply be 'dumb' boxes with no role to play. Virtually every piece of technology that exists has a program running it. DVD Players for instance have something known as 'firmware' which essentially is a simple operating-system which allows the equipment to work. The on-screen interface that you use to set a Television recording, or even the Navigation Menu which pops up when you're watching a DVD is all software. When you click 'play' on your DVD Recorder and sit down to watch a movie, a piece of 'software' pulls the binary-code from the disc & transforms it into actual video data in no time at all.

In it's simplest form, a program will make use of a certain 'language' to tell electronic equipment exactly how to handle a task. As you may assume, that vastly over- simplifies the procedure. At the level of your Windows desktop-computer, there are probably up to a hundred individual programs which are operating in the background, all sustaining the system & allowing you to actually do anything. Essentially, there's two levels of software programs for computers; the operating system (or low level) software, and the applications which run together with them. Microsoft Windows is among the most familiar operating systems of all. This is an enormously complicated selection of programs which interact together & run your desk-top space, how you interact with it, all of the storage mediums & internet access, along with all the devices which are connected to the Computer.

'C' is often the most commercially feasible 'languages' for the trainee computer programmer to start learning. The 'language' is extremely disciplined, and as such many others have been developed from it. When you've learned how to write programs in 'C', you will find the switch to others is much more spontaneous. MS support 'C' very much - it's the primary systems 'language', and one of the main 'languages' in both MS Visual-Studio & it's range of accreditations. Such a substantial edification and broad accreditation collection from MS simply enhance the validity of studying C at the start of almost any programming training route. As a matter of interest, 'C' started daily life back in the sixties (it wasn't actually labelled 'C' until the seventies though.) It then made the changeover to something called object-oriented 'C++' (which means its program isn't just one, 'linear' string of activities - it can be several 'objects' talking to each other) in the 80's. Around the very start of the 21st century, MS introduced a .NET enabled edition which is now named C# ('C' Sharp,) bringing us all right up to date. .net was a large advancement, as Windows software-writers could now access pre written programs that completed a lot of the basic tasks on their behalf.

Programmers working on systems use languages like C. The 'C' of today is a low level user friendly language which scarcely resembles the initial version. Programmers working on 'applications' use higher-level languages, of which you'll find a good deal. Every one has it's own particular list of rules and commands, and many suit specific tasks above others. So database programs are probably going to be written in a compatible language that sits well in the database environment, but games-programs will need a low level 'language' (like C) to run quickly enough. With database 'applications', split-second timing isn't important, but with games 'applications' it's very critical indeed! The emphasis for a database-friendly language is that it can provide capabilities which help to make the job easier for the user. Stripping everything possible away so that it can work more quickly would be counter-productive. You could compare it to the difference between a racing car & a family-estate. The 5 - 7 seater family estate is practical & more comfortable, but it's definitely not created for speed. For the function of taking the kids from one place to another though, it is more suited to the job.

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