From: marksweiss@... Date: 2007-02-13T01:40:08+09:00 Subject: Re: Just a really general Question... On Feb 12, 10:14 am, Derek Derek wrote: > Your reply helped a little bit.. i guess what i really need to figure > out is what exactly programming is. All i've ever coded was CSS and > HTML, and as far as the programming stuf .. i've only made a contact > form with PHP, but further than that .. i really have no idea what > programming is or it's uses. Thank you anyway though. :) > > -- > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. One incredibly oversimplified/overgeneralized response to this is, "Programs model things, actions and processes in the real world," e.g. - a program that simulates flying a plane or driving a car or tells you where your car is based on a GPS device and a satellite communicating with each other. Another equally simplistic response to this is, "Programs receive input, process the input, and produce output." e.g. - a program that reads a list of salaries from a database, calculates a percentage raise for each employee, and then stores the new salary figures back into the database. While these are oversimplified conceptions, they are also quite fundamental and true and encountered early on (implicitly if not explicitly) in any effort to learn to program. These are also useful signposts for programmers of all levels, being roughly analogous to two fundamental questions any programmer must answer when designing and coding anything, "What is this program supposed to do?" and "How will this program do what it is supposed to do?" Hope this helps and was at least in the neighborhood of the answer you were looking for. -- Mark