What is a good example to show to a non-programmer to explain what programming "looks like"?

Question

A friend of mine asked me the other day if I'm just looking at lists of numbers when I'm programming, or how it works. I tried to explain that it's generally more like math formulae, with the odd english word tossed in, and that it's generally mostly readable. But that's a very vague explanation, and it doesn't really explain much to a non-programmer.

But it got me to thinking about what would make a good example. Not because I want to teach her programming or anything, but simply to give her an idea of what program code "looks like".

And that got me to wonder about what would actually work as a good example. And that's turning out to be surprisingly difficult.

My first thought was obviously a simple "Hello World" program. But it really doesn't show anything useful. It doesn't really show how we use functions, or variables, or control flow structures like if or while to make a program that actually does something. There's no logic to it. The program doesn't react to anything.

So perhaps something like computing prime numbers would be a better example. But then again, that might be too theoretical and impractical... (What good is that? What does it have to do with writing "real" programs?) And again, there's no significant control flow logic in it. It's just a straight sequence of maths.

And also, which language should be used?

Ideally, I don't think it has to be a very "clean" language. But rather, it should probably make the structure clear. If it does that, then a certain amount of noise and clutter might be fine. Perhaps something like C++ would actually be a better example than Python for that reason. The explicit curly braces and type specifiers are obvious "hooks" to help explain how the program is structured, or to highlight that it's not just simple statements that can almost be read out as english.

But with C++ we also get into some downright weird syntax. Why is std::cout << x used to print out x? Why not a "normal" function call syntax? And printf isn't much better, with its arcane format string, and lack of extensibility (do I want to complicate the program by using char* for strings? Or do I use std::string and settle for calling the seemingly unnecessary s.c_str() to get a string that can be printed with printf?

Perhaps a higher level language would be better after all. But which one? And why?

I know there are plenty of similar questions here about which language/example program to use to teach programming. But I think the requirements here are different. When teaching programming, we want simplicity more than anything. We want to avoid anything that hasn't been taught yet. We want to make sure that the student can understand everything on the screen.

I'm not interested in simplicity per se. But rather in giving an "outsider" an idea of "what a program looks like". And programs aren't simple. But they do generally exhibit a certain structure and method to the madness. What language/program would best highlight that?

Edit
Thanks for all the suggestions so far. Some of you have had a somewhat different angle on it than I'd intended.

Perhaps an example is in order. I can't fly an airplane, but I've got a basic understanding of what the cockpit looks like, and what a pilot "does" while flying.

And I'm not a trained carpenter, but I know a saw or a hammer when I see one.

But when you see anything to do with programming in movies, for example, it's usually just screens filled with garbage (as in the green text in the Matrix). It doesn't look like something a normal human being can actually do. There's nothing recognizable in it. Someone who isn't a programmer simply thinks it's black magic.

I don't want to teach her to fly, or to program software. But I'd like to give her a basic frame of reference. Just an idea of "ah, so that's what you're working with. So it's not just random symbols and numbers on the screen". Even just showing a simple if-statement would be a revelation compared to the Matrix-style random symbols and numbers.

Some of you have suggested explaining an algorithm, or using pseudocode, but that's what I want to avoid. I'd like something that simply shows what actual code looks like, in the same way that you don't have to be a carpenter to look at a saw and get a basic idea of what it is and how it works.

When I was a kid, we once went on vacation in Italy. On the way down, the pilot let me into the cockpit of the plane. Of course, I didn't learn how to fly the plane. But I did get a peek into the pilot's world. I got an idea of how they make the plane go, what the pilot actually does.

That's really all I want to do. My friend has no interest in learning programming, and I don't want to force her to understand source code. But she was curious about what kind of tools or entities I work with. Is it Matrix-style symbols scrolling across the screen? Pure mathematics? English in prose form?

All I'm interested in conveying is that very high-level understanding of "What does it look like when I work".

Answer 1

I say show him bubble sort.

It's an easy, understandable trick, converted to a formal language.

That's what our job is about. Expressing our ideas in a strict, formal language, such that even a machine can understand. A little similar to designing procedures for organizational design.

Answer 2

When my 5 y.o. daughter asked me the question I made her "develop" the program for a little arrow "robot" that will get him into the upper-left-corner of the board using flowchart-like pieces of paper signifying moves, turns and conditions. I think it applies to grown-ups as well.

I do not claim the invention of this answer, though.

About your edit: I'm afraid, programmers have even less idea of the idea others have about programming. ;-) People think that programming is a matrix-like green video card corruption about as much as they think that spies are all equipped with James Bond's hi tech toys. And any professional in any field is normally irritated when watching the movie concerning his job. Because the movie maker has no idea! Do we know how to properly depict programming in the movie on the other hand? ;-)

Answer 3

I would just write something in pseudocode that demonstrates how to use a computer to solve an everyday problem. Perhaps determining which store is cheaper to buy a particular grocery list from or some such.

Answer 4

BASIC

10 PRINT "Sara is the best"
20 GOTO 10

Update: when I was 12, my cousin (he was 14) brought Turbo Pascal 7.0 and installed it in my computer.
He programmed a tic tac toe game from scratch (in BGI mode, for those who know).
I watched/observed step by step how a program evolves until it becomes a complete application.
Until then, I knew only how to print strings in BASIC :-B

You can do a similar thing. Pair programming. Well, actually your friend will be an observer but she'll get an idea ;)

Answer 5

I vote for quicksort, which is more elegant than bubble sort and easier to understand too:

qsort [] = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++ [x] ++ qsort (filter (>= x) xs)

Answer 6

Code up something quick that reads stock quotes and writes them to an excel spreadsheet. This is easy enough to do with a few minutes and impresses non technical types very quickly as they see the practical value of it.

Answer 7

Show R's basics, it is easier than C to understand, has many build in functions such as mean or sqrt, and at least R's assigment sign is "<-"

Answer 8

I would explain that programming is giving detailed instructions so the computer can make complex tasks.

How to make two cups of coffee?

1. Fill the kettle

2. Boil water

3. Coffee in cup

4. Pour on water
5. Add sugar

6. Add milk

7. Do 3 to 6 again

Answer 9

My usual choice is to retrieve a set of customer records from a database. Using C# and LINQ in Visual Studio, it takes maybe 10 minutes at most to build a web page and dump out the "Northwind" database customers into a grid. The nice thing is that a "list of customers" is something that almost anybody can understand.

Answer 10

Why not consider a language that doesn't exist (or does, if you so believe) and use Pseudo Code? I think, depending upon what you want to achieve - I'd consider the example of task familiar to the person, but carved up into a pseudo code example.

I generally find the idea of "cooking" or "recipes" to be a great fit when explaining things to non-programmers.

I ask the person to imagine they had a recipe that was fairly complex - e.g. a curry & rice dish. I then suggest that they should try and write it down for someone who has absolutely no idea what they are doing, so that they can cook it.

There is a very definite few stages involved:

• Gather the ingredients and tools for the job.
• Prepare the ingredients. This is complex. e.g.
  • get 3 Small Red Peppers.
  • for each red pepper you have, chop it into chunks about 1cm square.
  • place the red pepper chunks into a bowl for later.
• Seperately to this, call the prepare rice function and have this working asynchronously in the background while you continue on with the cooking.

I'm sure you can see where this is going... ;)

There are a lot of similarities with Cooking and Programming (as there are with many things, but more people have an understanding of cooking than of building a house). There stages / similarities (as I see it) are:

• Gathering: (declaration of what is required to achieve the goal and getting them together).
• Preperation: Chopping the ingredients or readying the data connection objects etc for first use.
• Asynchronous: The ability to have one thing going while another thing going.
• Functions: The rice making, the chicken cooking and the curry cooking all require separate processes and only at the end can you have the makeCurry(chickenMeat, rice) function.
• Testing: Ensure that as you are going along, you aren't missing any bits and that everything is going smoothly - e.g. ensuring chicken is cooked before you move to the next stage.
• Garbage: Once you've done, you must ensure that you tidy up. ;)
• Principals of Best Practice: There are efficient ways of doing things that like cooking, beginning programmers have to learn in addition to the code - sometimes it can be hard to get your head around. e.g. D.R.Y, how to chop efficiently with a knife & don't eat raw chicken ;)

Basically, I think for teaching programming as a general topic - I wouldn't necessarily teach from a language unless you had a compelling reason to do so. Instead, teach initially from the abstract until they understand at least the fundamentals of how things might fall together. Then they may find it easier when sat in front of a monitor and keyboard.

I think there may not be one "right answer" for this one. But I think maybe a few really good ideas you could maybe take bits from all of.

Answer 11

To answer your question directly - what programming “looks like”, I'd show them a print out of a large application. Toy apps or cute things like qsort in haskell really give the wrong idea.

Answer 12

Definitively something either with graphics, or windows, in a higher level language.

Why? A non-programmer is usually a non-matematician too, that's why he won't get the beauty of sorting. However showing something drawn on a screen ("look, a window!", "look, so little typing and we have a 3D box rotating!") can work wonders ;).

Answer 13

It's really hard to understand what programming is like just from a source code example, because it is so abstract.

There is nothing wrong with starting on hello world, as long as you can show what the computer actually does with it. You can then introduce one construct at a time. That's what programming is like- Making incremental changes, and seeing the results.

So you have a hello world program. Now change it to

string Name = getLine();
printf("Hello, %s", name);

then the if construct

printf("Do you like cake?");
string answer = getLine();
if(answer==="yes") {
    printf("Yeay! I like cake too!");
}
if(answer==="no") {
    printf("Filthy cake hating pig!");
}

then demonstrate that the last program fails when it recieves an answer other than either "yes" or "no", and how you would go about fixing it....

and so on. I don't think you need to go into deep concepts like recursion, or even functions really.

It doesn't really matter what programming you use for this, as long as you're able to show, on a computer, the result of these different programs. (though these psuedocode examples are probably pretty close to being valid python)

Answer 14

Totally depends on the level of her interest (or your level of interest in her). Most people ask that question as idle conversation, and don't really want to know.

Programming is more than algorithms (like "How to make a cup of coffee), it's also fundamentally rooted in mathematics. Most people will be quickly tripped up by the subtle use of mathematical terms (what's a "function"?).

In order to really teach programming, it may help to think back to your own first programming experiences, your first programming teacher, your first programming language. How did you learn? when you were learning, what skills did you already have fresh in your mind (i.e., calculus)? What motivated you to want to understand what a variable is or why there are three different kinds of loops?

Language-wise: Use something like python. Really high level, non-curly-bracket probably better.

Answer 15

Maybe everyone is concentrating too much on the code rather than tools. Possibly it's best to show her a project in an IDE, and how it includes various source files and maybe some diagrammatic things like a database schema or a visual user interface designer too. Visual Studio, Eclipse or Xcode are quite far away from most people's mental image of rapidly scrolling glowing green symbols on a black background.

Answer 16

Code something that has any comprehensible value to a non-programmer. If I'd demonstrate Quicksort to my mother, it wouldn't be of any use.

Ask the person about his interests. If he/she's into stock exchange for example, hack together a script that reads some stock statistics from a appropriate web page and compiles them into an excel sheet (use csv, to avoid heavy brain-damage ^^) or maybe into a nice graph.

If the person uses Twitter, code something that counts the followers of his followers or something like that.

These tasks are simple enough to be done in a very short time and they already utilize a lot of the basic tools that we programmers use, like loops, libraries (for all the http stuff involved), maybe recursion.

After you're finished or while you're coding (even better), you can explain how your program does its magic.

Just keep it simple and talk in human language. If you show them megabytes of code and talk about things like prototypal inheritance, you just intimidate them and they will lose interest immediately.

Answer 17

There was a CLI graphics package called LOGO, and best known for Turtle Graphics, used to draw shapes on screen using commands like LT 90, RT 105 etc. See if you can find that, it would be a nice experience to try and draw something of medium complexity.

LOGO - Logic Oriented Graphic Oriented programming language.

REPEAT 360 [FD 1 RT 1] -- draws a circle, etc.

See more at logothings or Wikipedia which also has links to modern logo interpreters.

Answer 18

I think you should download some big win32 application, written in AT&T assembly language, and show it to her in notepad, and tell her, "As you can see, it takes a superhuman like myself to program."

Answer 19

I've found that the best approach to "teach someone what programming is without teaching them programming" is actually to just drop anything related to a specific programming language.

Instead (assuming they're actually interested), I would talk them through implementing a function in a program, like a simple bank loan application (most people have had to deal with loans at some stage, if they're above a certain age), and then poking holes in all the assumptions.

Like, what should happen if the user types in a negative loan amount? What if the user cannot afford the loan? How would the loan application know that? How would the loan application know which bank account to check and which payment history to check (ie. who is the user actually)? What if the user tries to type in his name in the loan amount field? What if the user tries to take the loan over 75 years? Should we limit the choices to a list of available lengths?

And then in the end: Programming is taking all of those rules, and writing them in a language that the computer understands, so that it follows those rules to the letter. At this point, if it is felt necessary, I would pull out some simple code so that the overall language can be looked at, and then perhaps written out one of the rules in that language.

Bonus points if you can get your friend to then react with: But what if we forgot something? Well, then we have bugs, and now you know why no software program is bugfree too :)

Answer 20

Alice which was developed at Carnegie Mellon.

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.

Answer 21

Most programming languages syntax and even semantics are meant for MACHINES interpreter. This is mostly for facilitating design of the language itself NOT for the benefit of the programmer.

That's why I like Rebol, it's the only known language where you can write nearly in plain english or PSEUDO code that is ... EXECUTABLE like:

send "Hello World" [email protected]

or

write %temp.txt read %hello.txt

Answer 22

Why not just show the timelapse video A Day in the Life of a Scrum Team?

Answer 23

In pseudo-code:

function dealWithPerson(person){
    if(ILike(person)){
        getCookie().giveTo(person);
    }
    else{
        person.tell("You shall receive no cookies!");
    }
}

dealWithPerson(Person.fromName("Nick"));
dealWithPerson(Person.fromName("John"));

This demonstrates the concept of functions, object-orientation and strings, in a C-like syntax(when I say C-like syntax I refer to the weird characters).
It also shows how code can be reused. Note that although it is pseudo-code, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some language that accepted this syntax(perhaps JavaScript allows this?).

You could also adapt this example to have loops. Hope this helps show that person how a program looks like(since it is a realistic syntax and it is relatively easy to understand).

Answer 24

I have been teaching programming for many years and found out that the number of ways you need to explain things is equal to the number of students you have. But one method that works most of the time is as follows:

1. Present a flow chart that shown the flow of logic of a simple application
2. Write the instructions in full human language (e.g. English)
3. Abbreviate each instruction to the short-hand used in the programming language
4. Choose a less cryptic language like Basic or Pascal for teaching purposes

All code is simply shorthand for natural language. Written in full English most programs seem trivial.

As for a good algorithm, that is another story. It is sad to see many Computer Science courses no longer teach algorithms or brush over it.

Answer 25

I would consider Greenfoot. Though it is intended for children to learn programming, the graphics would probably help the reader relate the code to "actions". Here is an article on Greenfoot by a colleague of mine.

Answer 26

A programmer writes instructions for the computer to perform.
Running the program results in the computer actually following those instructions.

An example is a cook will follow a recipe in order to bake a loaf of bread. (even if it's in their head)... that's programming. Unlike my wife, the computer follows the recipe exactly every time. My wife, does it in her head and it turns out different but delicious every time ;-)

If you want to go ahead and teach this in more detail then pseudo-code is easy to understand.

e.g.

IF today's date is the 1st of may then
  print to screen "Happy Birthday"
ELSE
  print to screen "It's not your birthday yet"

The beauty of psuedo code is nearly anyone can understand it and this is the point of it.

Answer 27

I like to motivate intro programming with the "Locker Room Problem" (say, 100 locker rooms, initially closed. Person 2 enters and opens all that are even-numbered, person 3 enters and changes the status from open to closed and viceversa of all lockers whose numbers are divisible by 3, person 4 enters and those this for lockers whose numbers are multiples of 4, etc., until person 100 enters). Question is, which lockers remain closed? Of course, there is an elementary math solution to this (only perfect squares remain open), but it is a good exercise for intro programming, I think.

Answer 28

I'd walk a person through one relatively simple function, with less than ten lines of code. Don't focus too much on the syntax; focus on what it is supposed to do, and the steps it takes to do it. Also touch a little on some of the tradeoffs made (speed vs. space, to check for errors or not to check, etc.).

Then explain that what you showed is 0.01% of the entire program. And explain that 90% of your time is not spent writing the stuff, but trying to read the stuff and figure out why it isn't working.

Answer 29

It looks a bit like this.

Answer 30

My wife knows absolutely nothing about programming and computers. But she did understand when I explain that the computers are absolutely brainless and only follow instructions. You can define and control those instructions with a programming language. Basically you're telling a computer what to do using a programming language; it is the language a computer (in)directly understands.

It can be a long story, but a good demonstration example is a calculator such as calc.exe (or whatever calculator program your OS is using). Every programmer should be able to explain in easy-to-understand language what it is doing "under the hood" (telling the computer that it should listen and remember what buttons are pressed and what to do with those values). You could also consider to try to demonstrate that as well in your own language, which should at end also be fairly easy to understand. At least, it helped my wife (I assume ;) ).

Answer 31

Jalf,

What usually works best is showing something the person is already familiar with.

Selecting a file and printing is something very familiar to most people.

So, you can show a small piece of code that asks for a file and do something with it. It can be very short and still show how a program is built.

A piece of code like that will demonstrate: Overall structure Flow Use of variables and statements Use of API

Answer 32

{
   wait for 6/8;
   play F (5), sustain it for 1/4 and a half;
   play E flat (5), sustain it for 1/8;
   play D flat (5), sustain it for 1/8 and a half;
   play F (4), sustain it for 1/16;
   // ...
}

Perhaps a metaphor could be that of a composer writing a musical score. The job of a composer is the intellectual activity of creating music. With a score, the composer is telling the pianist what to play, and he does it by means of precise instructions (notes, pauses and so on). If the "instructions" are not precise enough, the pianist will play something different.

The job of a software developer is the intellectual activity of solving problems (problems that have to do with automated processing of data). With source code, the developer is telling the computer what to do, and he does it by means of precise instructions. If the instructions are not precise enough, the computer will do something different and will not solve the problem correctly.

Answer 33

To give my wife an idea of what I do to bring in a paycheck (It's real work! I promise! we don't just browse the web all day!) I sat down with her one evening with Python and showed her a couple of the basic concepts: calling a function (print), assigning and reading a variable, and how an if statement works. Since she's a teacher, I likened the concept of conditionals to working with preschoolers :)

IF you hit Jonny THEN you're in time out OTHERWISE you can have a snack.

After reviewing a couple of the very high level concepts, I then showed her the code to a simple number guessing game and let her play it while looking though the code.

# Guessing Game
import random

print("Guess a number between 1 and 100: ")

target = random.randint(1, 100)
guess = 0
guess_count = 1

while guess != target:
    guess_count += 1
    guess = int(input())

    if guess == target:
        print("Correct!")
    if guess < target:
        print("Higher...")
    if guess > target:
        print("Lower...")

print("Congratulations! You guessed the number in " + str(guess_count) + " guesses!")

Aside from the somewhat abstract concept of "import", this is a very straightforward example that is easy to follow and "connect" to what's happening on the screen, not to mention it actually does something interesting and interactive. I think my wife walked away from the experience a little less mystified by the whole concept without really needing to know much in the way of code.

I think the key is being able to have someone see the code AND it's end result side by side.

Answer 34

What does it look like when you work?

It looks like typing.

Seriously though, programming is kind of like if Legos were text, and to build a big Lego house, you had to type a lot of text in, just right, hooking up the right pegs with the right holes. So that is how I generally describe it.

Answer 35

Robotics is great for explaining programming, I think, because even simple, contrived examples are practical. The robotics equivalent of Hello World or printing a list of numbers might be having the robot move in a line or spin in a circle. It's easy for a non-programmer to understand that for a robot to do ANYTHING useful it must first move and position itself. This lets you explain simple program structure and flow control.

You want the robot to move forward, but only while there is nothing blocking its path. Then you want it to turn and move again. That's a simple routine using basic flow control, and the functions that you're calling are pretty easy to understand (if your platform has decent abstractions anyway).

Graphics might also work. Anything that has immediate results. jQuery even, because everyone is familiar with rotating pictures and web animations. Even contrived examples like pushing elements around in the DOM has an easy to see effect, and most people will understand what and why the statements in the program do.

Things like Robocode and LOGO are probably really good for this.

Answer 36

Quoting Steven C. McConnell, from his great book Code Complete, in Ch.2 he talks about Software Metaphors

A confusing abundance of metaphors has grown up around software development.

• Fred Brooks says that writing software is like farming, hunting werewolves, or drowning with dinosaurs in a tar pit (1995).
• David Gries says it’s a science (1981).
• Donald Knuth says it’s an art (1998).
• Watts Humphrey says it’s a process (1989).
• P.J. Plauger and Kent Beck say it’s like driving a car (Plauger 1993, Beck 2000).
• Alistair Cockburn says it’s a game (2001).
• Eric Raymond says it’s like a bazaar (2000).
• Paul Heckel says it’s like filming Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1994).

Answer 37

Want to show her what programming looks like? Just pop a terminal and

find /

Answer 38

I'd say either do some standard algorithm in psuedocode (pretty much any n^2 sorting algorithm should be fine. I like selection sort.) or point them to http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/

then again, I just like pointing people to 99-bottles-of-beer.net B-)