Sockets, switches, and dials
The first computers weren’t coded with words or languages, but by manipulating physical entities to do fairly basic calculations. “Programmers” would plug wires into sockets, set switches, turn dials, and spin rotors. It was, at the time, considered “women’s work” because it was mostly clerical. But setting that aside, it was all mechanical in nature. These workers didn’t call themselves “programmers” but “operators” because they physically operated the machine. There was no separation between the machine and the logic used to run the machine. They were the same thing.
It wasn’t until the abstraction of a “computer language” came along that the term “programmer” was introduced. Programming languages allowed for a distinct separation between the logic used to execute a program and the physical device used to execute that logic. As computers became more generalized, the notion of being a “computer programmer” arose.
Early on, computer programs were “linear” or task-bound—that is, they started at Point A and ran to Point B, most often doing calculations of some sort. Sure, they had branching, looping, and flow control, but most often the programs started with some input and produced some output.
