A program is an ordered set of operations that are processed by a processing unit (e.g. CPU, GPU, and calculator chips) or a processing program (e.g. an interpreter and virtual machine).

A program is usually bundled along with documentation and any dependent data and libraries. This bundle is collectively referred to as software. Such software is further classified into system software and application software.

Overview

A program is an ordered set of operations that implements one or more algorithm in order to solve some problem or complete a task. Programs are usually written by a programmer using a programming language, however they may also be created automatically using specialized code generators. Programming is typically involves writing source code, testing it, and modifying it appropriately. Software engineering is the discipline under which program development is done which involves the design, construction, testing, and maintenance.

Compilation & Translation

There are a couple of ways programs in human-readable (source code) forms into an executable or some other form which can be processed and executed:

• Programs coded in human-readable forms may be compiled to produce machine code. This is the kind of process that goes along with languages such as C, C++, Fortran, and Lisp (see compiled language).
• Programs coded in human-readable forms may be compiled into p-code to be executed by a virtual machine or a hardware implementation that can execute that p-code. This is the idea behind languages such as Java.
• Programs in human-readable forms can be interpreted and executed directly by an interpreter or specialized hardware. This is the idea behind languages such as MATLAB, Python, and PHP (see interpreted language).

Execution & Interpretation

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Classification

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