The first program EVER

[DCT Jared Smith]

>> I'm taking a home course on QBASIC, and as I was reading 
>> along I suddenly was 
>> dumb struck.  When the first program to ever be writen was 
>> writen, How did 
>> they check it or code it to make sure it would work and since 
>> it would have 
>> been the first program EVER! how did they wirte it? 

Here is the long answer.

In Hitchhikers Guide, they spent years and years
developing a computer which would answer the
question of "life, the universe, and everything." The
computer calculated for far longer than anyone's
lifetime, and by the time the answer appeared, it
was legendary. However, the answer, "42" was not
as meaningful as expected.

So this FIRST computer, which had answered the
question, designed ANOTHER computer, to
say what the question itself was. That second computer
is the planet Earth.

Yes, and...?

Well, this is the way computers seem to be built, starting
with on/off switches that could be toggled by a person's
fingers, which helped people design computers with
switches small enough to require software to toggle
them (software: a series of instructions to a computer
telling it when and where to turn switches off and on)

Then THAT computer helps design ANOTHER
computer with even tinier switches, which can handle
MORE code, because it's precompiled. Then THAT
computer helps design ANOTHER computer with
even tinier switches, which can handle MORE code,
because a whole debugging handler is now in place,
or because the chip can handle multiple threads of
code at once... and so on forever.

Now, here we are, several generations later, wondering
how the first code was written--it wasn't; it was physically
toggled on and off. Like a light switch--a pretty basic
program (even more basic than QBasic) which tells
your light to turn on.

Still listening?

A more concise answer to your question is that the
first program written was in 1s and 0s, and that first
program was a program to help us write English
words like JUMP and COMPARE and PUSH and
PULL (ie POP) and so forth. And then that program
was used to write another program with words like
IF, THEN, WHILE, PRINT, which are more
complicated kinds of commands.

And THEN came SQL, the uber-language which all
languages defer to, with its SELECT * FROM GROK
WHERE THIS EQUALS THAT AND NOT THEM
which returns all kinds of meaningful information...

And then came Perl, the Jedi Knight of all languages yet.

And we haven't got any better yet... :-)

Uh, by the way, your question about QBASIC is
kind of like asking "I was taking a home course in
carving cuneiform with a hammer and chisel, and
suddenly I realized, Why is the third letter in the
Roman alphabet so curved, it's hard to chisel an arc?"

In other words, a mixed metaphor, which is why I
so freely mixed them herein.

-Jared

p.s. in answer to your other question:
Yes, I do yahoo.

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