Component V Supporting Materials / Learn More Interesting Facts. Interesting Facts

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Component V Supporting Materials / Learn More 1.4.1 Interesting Facts No. Interesting Facts 1. All computers operate by following machine language programs. 2.

1 Component V Supporting Materials / Learn More Interesting Facts No. Interesting Facts 1. All computers operate by following machine language programs. 2. Machine language programs are long sequence of instructions called machine code that is addressed to the hardware of the computer and is written in binary notation. 3. The first computer programmer was a female, named Ada Lovelace. 4. Low level languages are specific to one type of computer and will usually not run on a computer with a different type of central processing unit (CPU). 5. The lack of portability between different computers led to the development of high-level languages so called because they permitted a programmer to ignore many low-level details of the computer's hardware. This saved a lot of time for programmers and made programs easy to understand by other humans. 6. The first high-level (very close to real English that we use to communicate) programming language was FORTRAN [FORmula TRANslation], were used almost exclusively by scientists, for scientific and engineering applications, invented in 1954 by IBM s John Backus. 7. Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, works for Google where he spends half of his time working on Python. 8. Visual Basic was formerly known as Project Thunder. 9. Larry Wall, the original developer of Perl, used to work for NASA. He developed it as a general purpose Unix scripting language to make his programming work simpler 10. Although the word bug has been used as a term to indicate a flaw in a machine for a long time, its first use in the field of computer programming was in On september 9 of that year someone working on the Mark II computer at Harvard University found a moth stuck in one of the components. The insect was taped in the logbook and labeled first actual case of bug being found.. Somehow the word made its way into the language of computer programming. Nowadays when computer programs are being debugged nobody thinks about insects anymore. 11. Perl is reported to stand for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, but this has never been confirmed and Perl is not officially an acronym for anything. Larry Wall, who designed and developed Perl, has said the name refers to the pearl of great price 1

2 12. Charles Babbage invented the first mechanical computer, forming the basis of the modern systems we use today. There has been confusion around the year in which Babbage was born, as his obituary published in the Times stated 1792, but his baptism was actually recorded in January of 1972, which wouldn t add up unless he was born a year earlier. Half of Charles Babbage s brain is on display at the Science Museum, London. The other half has been preserved and is held at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons. 13. Programming languages are now divided into four main paradigms: object- oriented, imperative, procedural, and functional. Functional languages are the most commmonly preferred type among programmers because they can be used for more than decoration. The first functional programming language developed in the 1950's was LISP, which stands for Labor Intensive Syntax Practices. 14. Computer programming is one of the fastest growing occupations currently. 15. A programming language is basically a language that allows a human being to communicate with a computer The lifestyle we live today with our tablets, and mobile phones wouldn t be possible without computer programming Glossary Starting Term Definition Character A Algol Short for ALGOrithmic Language, ALGOL is a portable language for scientific computations first introduced with ALGOL 58 in the late 1950's, as well as ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68 during the 1960's. A Algorithm An algorithm (pronounced AL-go-rith-um) is a procedure or formula for solving a problem. A computer program can be viewed as an elaborate algorithm. In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm usually means a list of instructions, procedures, or formulas used to solve a problem. A Assembler Program used to convert or translate programs written in assembly code to machine code. Some users may also refer to assembly language or assembler language as assembler. B Bug A bug is a general term used to describe any unexpected problem with hardware or software. 2

3 C Compilation Compilation is the process the computer takes to convert a high-level programming language into a machine language that the computer can understand. This is done by using a compiler. C Compiler A software tool that translates source code into data that the computer can understand. Specifically, a compiler is used to turn source code into object code. The object code is then passed through a program called a linker which turns it into an executable program. D Debug In general, refers to the process of taking a deep look into an issue and removing errors that are found. For example, a developer may debug the code or an error to get additional information to how the error occurred and then resolve that error. D Debugger A debugger is a program or utility designed to locate errors or issues within a program while checking the code structure. D Developer An individual who is responsible for creating or working on the development of a product. For example, a software developer may be responsible for creating a new software program to store the company's customer information. F Function A set of code used to carry out specific tasks. A function can take parameters which will effect its output as well as return values. Functions prevent unnecessary redundancy because you can use them as much as needed instead of retyping some code over and over. For example, if you need to multiply two numbers, instead of doing the calculation manually every time, you can supply the data to a function through some parameters which will do it for you. F Functional programming A function is a part of program that receives zero or more arguments and may return a result. Functional programming is a style of programming that emphasizes the evaluation of expressions rather than the execution of commands. 3

4 I Instructions When referring to the computer processor, an instruction is a segment of code that contains steps that need to be executed by the computer processor. For example, if you were to ask the computer to draw a square it would need a set of instruction in order to complete the task. L Linker A computer program that takes one or more objects generated by compilers and assembles them into a single executable program. M Machine Code A system of instructions and data directly understandable by a computer's central processing unit. M Machine Language Sometimes referred to as machine code or object code, machine language is a collection of binary digits or bits that the computer reads and interprets. Machine language is the only language a computer is capable of understanding. O Object Code The output of a compiler or assembler, not necessarily executable directly without linking to other modules. O O Object Program Object Oriented Programming A source program can usually be translated to an object program. The object program can actually exist in many forms, depending on the particular system involved. It can exist in pure binary form, or it could actually exist in a fairly complex symbolic assembly language form. The phrase object program, strictly speaking, relates only to the final binary form that can be executed by the computer, but in common conversation it is often used to denote the result of translating the source program at least down to an assembly level. Coined by Alan Kay, Object-Oriented Programming, also known as OOP or o-o programming, is a programming that incorporates other segments of external code. A good example of an object-oriented programming language is Java. 4

5 P Paradigm A fundamental style of computer programming to which the design of a programming language typically has to cater, such as imperative programming, declarative programming, or, on a finer level, functional programming, logic programming or object-oriented programming. P Program A software application, or a collection of software applications, designed to perform a specific task. For example, Microsoft Word is a word processor program that allows users to create and write documents and the browser you're using to view this page is also a program. P Programmer Alternatively referred to as a coder, a programmer is an individual who enjoys or writes code, or develops software for a living. Many programmers who program for a profession have a college degree in computer science. While each job differs, most programmers are responsible for creating the software program or parts of a program, debugging problems, or adding onto a program. S Software Engineering Software engineering is the programming and production that goes into the software development process. This commonly involves the planning, design, and continued development of a software application. S Source Code Human-readable instructions in a programming language, to be transformed into machine instructions by a compiler, interpreter, assembler or other such system. When referring to computer programming or a software program, source refers to the code used to create the program. Commonly, the source code is not released to others outside of the company that developed the software unless the program is open-source. S Source Program The actual program written in a higher level language is called the source program. This is the material that is put into the computer by the user for the purpose of obtaining results Web links Web Links

6 REFERENCES 1. A Brief History of Programming Languages. se7/artl9.htm. 2. A brief history of programming languages /01/11/ html 3. A Short History of the Computer. Jeremy Myers. Cited, March 25, Java History Programming Languages. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill, Bergin, Thomas J. and Richard G. Gibson, eds. History of Programming Languages-II. New York: ACM Press, Christiansen, Tom and Nathan Torkington. Perlfaq1 UnixManpage. Perl 5 Porters, Cutler, Donald I, Introduction to computer programming, Prentice-hall Inc:Englewood Cliffs, Exelblat, Richard L., ed. History of Programming Languages. New York: Academic Press, Sammet, Jean E., Programming languages: history and fundamentals. Prentice-hall Inc:Englewood Cliffs, Scott, Michael L. Programming Language Pragmatics (2nd Edition).Saint Louis, MO, USA: Morgan Kaufmann, p Tennent, R.D. Principles of programming languages. Prentice-Hall of India Pvt Ltd: New Delhi,

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE PARADIGMS & THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE PARADIGMS & THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING JAN BARTONÍČEK This paper's goal is to briefly explain the basic theory behind programming languages and their history