Computer Programming

Application programming is a good place to start programming if you enjoy building substantial programs. For example, you could create a simple game application. Application programming is more difficult to start off with, but it can be much more powerful in the right hands. While knowledge on web development can only be used to create programs that run in the web browser, applications run straight on the computer. Additionally, mobile development (to be discussed later) is very closely related to application programming. Many of the same techniques apply, you just need to know slightly different libraries.

However, there are drawbacks, mainly in the level of difficulty. Web development has a much lower learning curve. You can begin creating web sites very quickly. The same cannot be said about application programming, however. Even a simple game requires lots of knowledge. For example, a game might require OpenGL in order to draw the game graphics on the screen. In order to do that, you need knowledge of the OpenGL library and how it works. You’ll need to integrate the graphics portion of your game with the game mechanics code. Integrating sound into the game is another library. And 3D graphics get even more complex.

Not to say that all application programming is extremely difficult, however. Applications are written for a variety of fields besides games. However, instead of thinking about graphics, you generally have to know algorithms and data structures. A checkbook application would need a database to store the accounts and transactions, for example. A text editor needs to work with files and different content encodings.

If you want to program mobile applications, learning application programming is a great place to start off. The two main mobile platforms are iOS and Android. iOS uses a programming language called Objective-C, which is related to C++. Android uses the Java language. Both C++ and Java are important, closely related programming languages used to build applications, so learning application programming will give you a great leg up if you want to begin mobile work. And it’s not just the libraries, but the methods that are similar. While web development is oriented around the web browser, mobile development is built for what is essentially a shrunk-down computer.

All in all, application programming can be tough at times, but it is very rewarding when you’re able to look at the program you coded entirely on your own. Once you understand computer science concepts, you’re able to create just about anything.

Posted in Programming at April 12th, 2012. Comments Off.

Web Programming Services

Every internet user is familiar with the term WWW or World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is nothing but a system of interlinked hypertext documents. These documents are generally written in Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML. HTML supports internal and external linking and you can link your document with graphics, audio, video etc. These days we can’t think of a world without internet. People share information, communicate with each other, market products or services through internet.

Web programming is the soul of Web. Without programming, nothing can work on the internet. It is the building block of every website. A web programmer writes codes and utilizes programming tools like CSS, XML, Javascript, HTML and any other programming languages that are necessary to develop a website.

Here are some of the popular web programming services that web developers use to create complex and feature rich websites. Using these web programming tools they write cleaner codes and help your site rank high in search engine results.

AJAX- The full form of AJAX is Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It’s a method of developing interrelated web developments that process user requests instantly. AJAX uses several programming tools.

For presentation purpose it uses Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
For data manipulation and data display it uses Extensible Markup Language (XML).
For dynamic display of data and interaction purpose it uses Document Object Model (DOM).
It also uses JavaScript to synchronize all the functions.
Google map is an Ajax based application. That is why it allows you to manipulate the data on the map. In Google map, you can immediately find any location from a global map and add favorites to your most searched places.
Web 2.0 Programming- Web 2.0 programming is the most popular trend these days. It offers better user interface and provides more freedom to the users. Web 2.0 is also known as “social bookmarking.” Some of the popular Web 2.0 sites are Furl, Blinklist, Del.icio.us, Blogmarks, Kaboodle etc. Social bookmarking improves search engine ranking. When a number of web users like a website and bookmark it, that site gets a top spot in search engine ranking.

CGI (Common Gateway Interface)- With the help of CGI a server can send or fetch data to databases, documents and other programs. The core programming language in CGI is Perl. When you search for something on a website, CGI inspects the content and gives an appropriate response. Websites like Facebook, Yahoo and WikiPedia use CGI as their web development platform.

Web programming is all about adding functionalities to a website. With the help of programming, you can customize the features of your website and give your users an enjoyable experience.

Web programming is a complicated process. If you want to develop a functional and user friendly website, hire a professional web programming company for the job. However, before you hire a company, make sure that they have the infrastructure to provide you quality service. Meet with their programmers and discuss your requirements with them. If you are satisfied with their knowledge, only then you should hand over your project.

Posted in Programming at April 10th, 2012. Comments Off.

Large Branch of Programming

Web programming is an increasingly large branch of programming. It deals with creating websites. But it’s far more than just simple HTML code. From server-side languages such as PHP, to layout languages like CSS, to large all-in-one web frameworks such as Django, web programming has a great deal of subfields.

One important, although less used today, set of programs used to build websites is the LAMP stack. This stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, the four main tools used to create the website. Linux is the operating system that everything else runs on, Apache is the web server that gives HTML pages to the web browser, PHP is the programming language that generates the HTML, and MySQL is the database server that stores information about the website. The LAMP stack is still very important because web frameworks, such as WordPress, are often based off of it. However, for most web sites, it’s too low level, and using a framework makes things easier and quicker.

There are many different frameworks, which is a mixed blessing. Because of the variety of frameworks, it has become very easy to create a website that you want. For example, to create a blog, all you have to do is download WordPress onto a web server and begin writing posts. A forum site is as simple as using phpBB. A wiki just needs MediaWiki in order to function. The drawback of this, however, is that there’s a lot to learn in order to be an effective web programmer. Different frameworks often have very little in common, so in order to stay current with your knowledge, you need to be constantly learning, even more so than for application programming.

This is, however, less of a problem with lower-level languages, such as the aforementioned LAMP stack and basic web page languages such as HTML and CSS. However, building a site this way can be very tricky. The web has very few universal standards, and all of the major web browsers have slight quirks and incompatibilities that need to be worked around in order to make a website look the same everywhere. Web frameworks generally handle this automatically, but when writing raw code you have to do this yourself.

Another drawback of web programming is that it doesn’t translate well to any other platform. Web programming is oriented around web pages, not general APIs that application programming is based on. Other fields, such as mobile programming, have very little in common with the web.

All in all, web programming is a great opportunity but it can also be a challenge. While learning to build a specific website can be done quickly, becoming an expert requires a large amount of learning.

Posted in Programming at April 5th, 2012. Comments Off.