Are Functions Core Concepts in Computer Programming?
Computer programming is a phrase that is bandied about quite
heavily, but only few people actually understand its implications. The process
of computer programming itself is difficult to understand for people who are
not in the computer science field. Computer programming makes use of a code or
a language: this language can be placed into several lines of code that can be
translated to mean different things once they are processed as a program. For
instance, the software that you use to calculate your taxes, or the software
that you employ to make your simple web page are all products of skilful
computer programming. Behind these software programs are scripts and codes, and
these scripts and codes can mean different things.
For many different programming languages, a function can be
important and can therefore be a key concept to learn when someone is
interested in software and computer programming. A function can also be termed
as a subroutine, procedure, or sub-query. How is a function important? For instance,
if a company or institution has a library of many different programs, these
programs can therefore consist of millions upon millions of lines of a source
code. In the interests of time and space, you would like to keep from
duplicating a certain source code in many different places.
Why is duplication so undesirable? If a source code is
duplicated in many different places, it is being needlessly copied, and it can
spell Hell for the programmer and troubleshooter when things go wrong down the
line. If the source code is actually erroneous, the programmer or
troubleshooter will have to correct the code in all the different places that
it appears. If the source code has to be updated or improved in order to make
the program either run faster or perform more operations, then the source code
has to be modified, improved, and updated in all the places that it appears.
And if the source code has to be removed and replaced with a new source code,
then it has to be erased and replaced with the new code in every single place
that it appears.
This is indeed time-consuming, and it can lead to more
errors because of all the human intervention that has to be done. On the other
hand, if there are functions that are built to handle all the different
programs, then only one or a few changes need to be made should there be
errors, or should the source code have to be updated, modified, improved, or
changed. You can think of the function as an umbrella: it covers all of many
different programs beneath it, so that you do not have to cover each program
individually.
Having a single source code serving as the function is also
advantageous when you have to introduce a new program that still makes use of
that same source code. Because the source code is already available as an
overall function or sub-program, you do not need to add the source code to the
new program. You only need to find a way for the new program to interact with
the source code itself.
These are only a few facts that you need to know about
functions in computer programming. For more information, read up on the latest
computer programs, how different programs can interact with each other using
some umbrella or overall scripts, and how different programs can be improved
when using functions.
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