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Showing posts from November, 2007

10 Mistakes Technical Writers Make

A few good tips for wannabee technical writers. 10 Mistakes Technical Writers Make

Basics of C for Technical Editors

Let me start with the following example: # include main ( ) { printf ("hello, world\n"); } All C programs starts with the execution of the function main . All C programs must include a function with the name main. The round brackets or parentheses means that main is a function. The empty brackets mean that the function main expects no arguments. The statements of the function are enclosed in curly brackets or braces. C statements are expression statements : an expression followed by a semicolon. For example, i = 0; or i = i + 1; printf prints the characters within the quotes on the screen. Thes characters "hello, world\n" is called a string or character string or string constant. Strings are always put between inverted commas. A semicolon after characters indicates that it is a statement. "n' is the escape sequence, because when ENTER is pressed it goes to the next line and not a new line or paragraph. VARIABLES : In C, there are two main types of vari...

Different levels of computer programming

The different levels of computer programming are: 1. First generation-Language the computer can obey instantly. In the form of 0's and 1's. The command tells the computer what to do and the operand tells the computer where to find and store the data. 2. Second generation-Also called Assembly language. In this language 0's and 1's are replaced by symbolic codes written by humans. This include mnemonic codes and symbolic addresses. The instructions are of 3 parts;Label or tag (symbols defined by coders), OP code (code that tells the computer what to do) and Operand (tells the computer where to store and locate information). 3. Third- Also called High-level languages-More procedure and problem solving oriented. Language is written using alphabets, numbers and special characters. Rules called Syntax is developed. Eg: C, Fortran, COBOL, Java. 4. Fourth-Non-procedural, Very High-Level language. Applications can bew created and information easily gathered. Eg: IBM's Que...