Ten Cool facts about Coding / Programming
1. There are around 700 separate programming languages
Among the most popular languages on this list are JavaScript, Swift, Scala, Python, PHP, Go, Rust, Ruby, and C#, with millions of users using them in both their professional and personal projects.
New programming languages, on the other hand, are constantly being developed.
2. Recent studies show that around 70% of coding jobs have nothing to do with technology at all
Yes, you or your child could learn how to program and use this knowledge in areas that are wholly unrelated to technology, such as nature studies, geography research, film and design.
3. The first computer virus was created in 1986
The virus, dubbed Brain, was created in Pakistan by two brothers, Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi.
According to the siblings, who ran a popular computer store, they created Brain to prevent their customers from making unauthorized copies of their software.
Brain, on the other hand, unlike traditional viruses, only contained a hidden copyright message and did not corrupt or delete any of the user’s files or information.
4. The first computer “bug” was an actual real-life bug
A bug in programming is an error that causes a program to crash or behave strangely.
Thomas Edison coined the term “bug” in 1878 to refer to technical errors of the time, and it would eventually find widespread use in modern computing.
However, the first recorded case of a computer bug was in 1947.
Grace Hopper, a US Navy admiral, was working on a Mark II computer when she discovered a moth had become stuck in the relay, causing it to fail.
She wrote in her journal after the moth was removed, “first actual case of bug being found” – and the rest is history.
5. According to many online studies, the most disliked programming languages are Perl, Delphi, and VBA
PHP, Objective-C, Coffeescript, and Ruby followed closely behind.
Surprisingly, despite how the community perceives them, two of the entries on this list, PHP and Ruby, remain extremely popular with users.
6. The world’s first computer programmer was a renowned female mathematician
Ada Lovelace, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron, was a gifted mathematician who was born in London on December 10, 1815.
Later in life, she would collaborate with Charles Babbage, a well-known mechanical engineer who invented one of the first mechanical computers.
She would then write a theory about programming a machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers.
The resulting code would eventually become the first algorithm executed by a machine, and thus the first computer program.
7. The first programming language was called FORTRAN
Mr. John Backus, an American computer scientist, led the team that created
FORTRAN, which first appeared in 1964, is still in use today, primarily to assist computer scientists in performing complex tests in areas such as numerical weather prediction, geophysics, crystallography, and computational chemistry.
8. The first-ever computer game made zero profit for its team of creators
Steve Russel, a young computer programmer, and his enthusiastic team of fellow developers created space war from the ground up.
Rather than charging people to play space war, Steve and his team happily shared their creation with anyone who wanted to try it out.
9. Many owners of large tech companies loved video games as kids
For example, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, co-founders of Apple, first achieved success by creating their own video game called Breakout.
From there, they would go on to become two of the most influential names in tech, earning billions of dollars throughout the years.
10. NASA still uses programs from the 70s in their spacecraft
According to experts, NASA chooses not to write new code or design new programs because doing so would be prohibitively expensive.
In addition, implementing new programs necessitates extensive testing to reduce the likelihood of a catastrophic failure.
Instead, they stick with older technology that has proven to be dependable, safe, and low-cost.
Surprisingly, the Space Shuttle, one of NASA’s flagship spacecraft, runs on less code than many of today’s cellphones and other gadgets.