Beginning Programming Language is important

I need you to pick up the following: I need 5 jars of peanut butter. Go to Oakley’s Fruit Stand and purchase corn. Please go to Food Lion and find two 4.6 oz tubs of Smart Balance Butter.  Travel to Acme, and pick up a gallon of milk; if they have eggs, buy 6. Go to Wright’s Market and buy 4 pumpkins; if they have gourds, please get them, if not purchase the largest ones they have.

I need you to pick up the following: We need bread! If Rise Up coffee is open, purchase 5 lbs of ground coffee. If they have more than 3 lbs of decaffeinated coffee, buy 3 lbs of decaf and 2 lb of regular coffee. If they have 2 lbs or less of decaf, buy what they have and purchase the difference between the 5 lbs and the amount of decaf purchased of regular coffee. If Rise up is closed, go to Dunkin Donuts and purchase coffee. Go to Dollar General and buy a pack of 100 Bounty napkins, spend no more than $3.47. Go to Sam’s Club and buy 2 gallons of Store Brand Mayonnaise. If they have free pizza samples, bring what you can. Do exactly what #8 is doing, but travel to Wal-Mart instead.

I need you to pick up the following: Count how many people are in our classroom and purchase enough paper plates for each person to have 3 [in case we may need seconds or have an accident and drop one]. Find as many coupons as you can for Florida's Natural Orange Juice. Find a store that is having a sale on this brand of orange juice. Use the coupons as directed to buy no more than 5 gallons of orange juice.

Let’s see what you drew? Would you have picked up the same?

Did you hear about the computer programmer who was stuck in the shower? He followed the directions on the back of the shampoo bottle!

Does a computer understand what people “say”? Not the same way that a person does. Programs run off of ‘Instructions’ – a specific set of things that they already know what to do. I could not demand that Grace demonstrate how to ‘dab’ if she does not already know what that is. But we could give her specific instructions on how to do this.

The Need for Programming Languages Ambiguity in our language English / Spanish / German Cultural references Regional dialect Slang ‘inside jokes’