Important of Programming Language

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Reasons for Studying Concepts of Programming Languages

or
Why take this course?

1. Increased capacity to express ideas


- small grasp of natural languages restricts communication skills
- limited knowledge programming languages and constructs limits ability
- can apply concepts from other languages to those that don’t contain them

2. Improved background for choosing appropriate language


- if you only know one language, you will use it even if not suited to task
- if you know several, will use best one
- if you know another language is better suited, may take the time to learn it

3. Increased ability to learn new language


- knowing fundamental concepts makes learning new language easier
- knowing object-oriented concepts of C++ makes learning Java easier
- in natural language, knowing a few languages makes it easer to learn another

4. Better understanding of the significance of implementation


- understanding language implementation leads to better understanding of design
- give understanding of choices of constructs and consequences of choices
- knowing implementation aids in program efficiency and debugging

5. Better use of languages already known


- languages are large and complex – you only learn a subset
- can learn about features that are previously unknown and unused

6. Overall advancement of computing


- in past, better languages not accepted because they were not well understood
- studying programming languages in general makes us better judges of new ones
Programming Domains

1. Scientific Applications – computers invented for them


- simple data structures for large number of floating-point computations
- data structures: arrays, matrices
- control structures: loops, selection
- languages had to compete with assembly languages – thus efficiency first concern
- 1957 – FORTRAN (Formula Translation) – primary use and still “best” efficiency

2. Business Applications – began in 1950’s


- special hardware developed for business (decimal data type)
- 1960 – COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) – ANSI standard 1985
- elaborate I/O facilities for report generation
- decimal data types for accuracy
- now spreadsheets, database systems, and associated “languages”

3. Artificial Intelligence – early 1960’s


- broad area characterized by use of symbolic computation – linked lists
- absence of exact algorithms
- use of self-modifying code
- 1965 – LISP (List Processing) – functional language
- 1984 – PROLOG (Programming in Logic) – logic programming – declarative

4. Systems Programming – began in 1960’s


- systems software – operating systems and support tools
- need execution efficiency and access to low-level features
- vendor-specific languages
- 1971 – C (ANSI 1989) – for writing UNIX operating system
- low-level, easy to port, efficient, few safety restrictions

5. Scripting Languages
- early use of putting list of system commands in file, called script
- added variables, control flow statements, functions, etc.
- sh, ksh, bsh, csh – variations for UNIX
-awk – began as report generation language
- tck/tk – building X-Window applications
- Perl – combination of sh and awk – more of full-fledged language
- JavaScript & PHP for web development

6. Special-Purpose Languages
- many of them appeared (and disappeared) over the years
- RPG – produce business reports
- APT – programming machine tools
- GPSS – systems simulation

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