Programming Languages

Learning Outcomes:

Programming paradigms

Be aware of the evolution of programming languages.
Recognise the programming paradigms involved in procedural, logic, object-oriented and query languages.

Describe the criteria for selecting a programming language for a specific problem.

Language translators and compilers

Programming paradigms

Procedural languages

Object-oriented languages

Entities represented by classes. An object belongs to a class. Each class has its own set of attributes and methods. E.g. CAR as an example of a class. My car (object) belongs to the class CAR. My car is white in color (attribute) and uses electricity to run e.g. move forward (method).
Hide unnecessary information (encapsulation): you can use the class without showing the details of the class.
Reuse of class/function (inheritance): derive a class from another class and reuses its attributes/methods.
Utility libraries: pre-written code for specific tasks, helps to shorten software development time.

Logic languages

Examples: Prolog
Features/Advantages: Instead instructing the computer how to solve a problem, logic programming languages focus on what problem to solve by using the facts and rules given.

Criteria for selecting a programming language

Relevant past paper:

DSE ICT Elect B(SP-2017): PP 3f. 2012 1ci, 4c. 2013 4d. 2014 2d. 2015 2c. 2017 3d.

CE CIT 2005 3e.

Language translators and compilers

Code generation related: Translator – assembler, compiler, interpreter

Source code: low level or high level program code that is written by programmer.
Translator: Translation of source code into format that is understandable by computer. i.e. object code, machine code.
Machine code: machine code is generated by assembler from source code (low level program code). In general, execution of machine code is efficient.
Object code: object code is generated by compiler from source code (high level program code). Further process is needed to convert the object code into executable file.
Interpreter: Instead of generating an object code, interpreter translate the source code one statement at a time.
Compiler vs interpreter: Compiler is more efficient as there is optimization of code during code generation.

Linker: A linker combines object code and the required external libraries files into a single executable file (.exe).

Loader: A loader loads the executable file to the main memory for execution.

Relevant past paper:

DSE ICT Elect B(SP-2017): PP 1c. 2012 1cii. 2013 2a. 2015 1ciii, 2d. 2016 1b. 2017 2e.

Learn more:

DSE ICT Elect B(SP-2017): SP 4e.

AL CS2(2003-2012): 2007 8cde. 2009 6. 2011 5.

References: