The core of programming..?

Question

Someone asked me to teach programming, but I am a n00b (just finished Java and C# courses). But after completing the courses and reading some books, I realise that at the heart of a programme, it is just an input-output system.

Data → Programme → NewData
Or in words, a programme takes a data as input and returns a newdata, usually more useful, as output.

So, before I teach this, I need the seniors here to confirm. Am I right in this way of thinking? Or is this just for *most* programme but not all?

Answer 1

The programs can also interact with peripherals but this interaction happens through data manipulation so you are in some sense correct

Answer 2

One interesting thing is that you can't generate new data from nothing, everything you do to your data in a program was already in there.

Answer 3

So, sometimes the output can be some electrical signal that command the peripherals to do some tasks. Thanks Max.

Answer 4

Yes, that's why informatics are called informatics. Everything a round you - numbers, texts, colors, statistics, the sky - are information in some sense.

Informatics is the art of taking information and getting more (or new) information out of them.*

Which essentially means taking data, doing something with the data, and getting new data.

*This is what fascinates me most about programming, and it is what motivated me the most when I realised it. (Almost) nothing is impossible with programming, you just have to be creative.

Answer 5

Schindlabua , what do you mean by the data already in there?

If my programme takes string name = "Jansen" and generates string reversed = "nesnaJ", does that mean reversed is already in there?

Answer 6

Jansen Tanu, He probably means the law of conservation of information

Answer 7

Yeah but an electrical signal is just data from the view of the program