Talk:Computer program/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions about Computer program. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Conforming to Wikipedia:Guide to Layout,

first paragraph should be short and to the point, with a clear explanation of what the subject of the page is.

See to current fist definition pagraph:

A computer program (often simply called a program) is an artifact that describes computations, and possibly actions that are to be carried out based on the results of those computations. A computer program can be manifested in several forms:

• It can be written down on paper, like a cooking recipe.
• It can be used to guide the fabrication of a piece of computer hardware.
• It can be realized as computer software, i.e. data stored in the memory of a computer.

The last of these usages is the one most strongly associated with the term "computer program", and in fact the term "program" is often used as a synonym for "software". When manifested in the appropriate hardware or software, a program becomes directly executable; that is, the program's embodiment can compute and act autonomously, without human intervention.

It is not short. Contains a lot of out of topic text. Explanation are not clear. What does mean "and possibly actions that are to be carried out based on the results of those computations"? IMHO, I see in the paragraph usefull for definition only phrase "A computer program describes computations". All other text better to move to one of other paragraph.

It is not complete. I propose, first paragraph after definition should associate program with Instruction, Algorithm. It should to mention goals of running program (Data processing, Data). It much more important than cooking, fabrication.

Please compare with one of professional copyrited trusable definition, from webopedia: Program is "An organized list of instructions that, when executed, causes the computer to behave in a predetermined manner.". IMHO, I like this definition. Of cource, it could be some improved.

I don't know why we should trust the Webopedia definition. Wikipedia seeks to be better than Webopedia. What are the qualifications of Webopedia's editors? They don't say. I suspect if you got any half-dozen Ph.D.s in computer science into a room, they would not come up with Webopedia's definition of "program". For example, a computer program written in a purely functional language like Haskell cannot, in any respect, be said to contain an "organized list of instructions". A functional program describes a computable function, which has nothing to do with an organized list of instructions. And what about constraint programming, or logic programming, or any of the plethora of declarative programming paradigms? Do you seriously think a Prolog program can be described as a "list of instructions"? Webopedia's definition is silly on the merits. I don't trust Webopedia and frankly appealing to its authority only lowers your credibility in my eyes.

I have inserted a paragraph break in the first paragraph. It's short now. If you want to move some mention of algorithm to the first paragraph, then go ahead. Don't muck up the definition by saying a program is a "list of instructions" though.

BTW, the reference to cooking is not trivial --- the "program as recipe" metaphor is a good one that helps laypeople understand intuitively what a program is. In fact, for a general-interest encyclopedia I think it's more important to give laypeople such intuition in the first paragraph than it is to mention the term algorithm, which is a technical term that is mostly of interest to computer scientists. k.lee 00:54, 11 May 2004 (UTC)