What is the first thing I need to know about Logic in Programming?

This is your first step towards a career as a programmer, you should probably be asking yourself "What is the first thing I need to know about the first subject that I need to learn in programming?". It may seem common to some people but it is these basic concepts like:

Algorithm: An algorithm is defined as a finite sequence of instructions to solve a problem. And instructions is exactly the job of the programmer, there is a problem to be solved, so the programmer gives instructions for a computer to interpret, in order to solve this problem… The computer processes data very fast but needs to receive instructions.
For example, if you have the problem "Making coffee" your algorithm would be "1) Heat water, 2) Put a filter, 3) Put the coffee powder in the filter, 4) Pour the hot water and 5) Wait to filter" , and these instructions need to be executed in order or do not have the desired result.

Automation: Consists in using machines to perform a desired procedure automatically or semi-automatically. For example, in our problem above, a coffee maker would automate some of the processes needed to solve our problem, so creating the coffee maker would be an example of process automation, saving time and effort, many automation processes aim at saving time, effort and cost.

These terms are used constantly and you probably have heard them used in various contexts, other terms referring to your computer you may have heard of are Hardware and Software.

Hardware: refers to everything that is physical on your computer, the machine itself as well as its components, for example the motherboard, video card, processor, etc ... So every time you hear about hardware, you know that you refer to these physical components that make up the computer or a console.

Software: it is the logical part, such as programs, operating systems (Windows, Linux and IOS), applications (browser, camera, facebook), games and utilities (antivirus, winrar). Nothing too difficult to understand and probably many people are already used to these terms and this does not come as a surprise, but this article is really the first concepts for people who are totally beginners. I think there should be no doubt in the future about the difference between Hardware and Software.

Perhaps a doubt naturally came to you… ”if I know that Algorithms are a sequence of instructions for solving a problem and that Software is programs… then Algorithms are programs?” and the answer is yes, Computer programs are algorithms executed by the computer. From this, we can conclude that a computer is a machine that automates the execution of algorithms. "But can the computer execute any algorithm?" well… no, the computer is restricted to interpreting only computational algorithms like data processing and calculations, think that to communicate with the computer you have to speak in a language that it understands, like calculations. For example, if the goal we want to achieve, in other words, our problem is to rotate a square at a 90 ° angle, you would not say “hey square! turn 90 ° please ”, this is the language of humans, to communicate with the computer it would be something like“ <square> / rotate: 90 ”, the computer understands that there is an object“ <square> ”and it finds an action to execute that would be to “/rotate” and find a value for this action that is “90”, as the rotation values ​​range from 0 to 360, the computer knows that it must rotate 90°.

I hope I have helped the beginners a little with these basic concepts that serve to get us started in Programming Logic, which is the first subject in a programmer's curriculum.