IPE ADDITIONAL EXERCISES

(Software Development – Oct 31st, 2017)

A. Read the text for more concise information about computer languages.

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B. Listen to the recording (1-5) and answer the following questions.

1. Why is Java the number one programming language today?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Java?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3. On which operating system was C originally developed to work?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
4. What is C still being used for?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

5. What are C's weaknesses?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

6. Is C++ compatible with C?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

7. Which software category is C++ more used to write?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

8. Compared to Java or C#, what are the weak points of C++?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

9. What was PHP originally created for?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

10. Why was PHP first criticised?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

11. List PHP's weaknesses

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

12. Which language is considered the mother of VB?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

13. What is VB specially good for?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

D. Complete the sentences with gaps with the words or phrases you hear (9-10)

1. Perl is an interpreted, multi-paradigm language written by Larry Wall in 1986.

2. It is characterized .............................................................................................................................................
3. However, a lot of ................................................................................................................................ as their
primary language.
4. 10 years ago,.........................................................................................................................................................
5. What happened? A lot of newer programmers and even old Perl programmers (such as
myself) .................................................................................................................. PHP, Python, and Ruby.
6. Perl is perhaps still t... ......................................................................................................................................
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 7. I personally do not recommend it however as a ..................................................................................
8. Strengths: text processing and system administration
9. Weaknesses: strange syntax, and perhaps too many ways to do the same thing
10. Ruby is............................................................................................ Yukihiro Matsumoto around 1995.
11. It is one of the most …………................................................................................................. in the world.
12. Everything is an object in Ruby, ..................................................................................................................
13. It's a great language to learn .........................................................................................................................
14. The only negative is that its love of object-orientation ....................................................................
15. Strengths: Perhaps the world's most object-oriented language
16. Weaknesses: its superior object model ..................................................................................................

C. Complete each of the gaps with ONE word as you hear the recording (6-8)

Python is an interpreted, (1)......................... programming language written by Guido van Rossum

in the late 1980's and intended for general programming purposes. Python was not named
after the snake but actually after the Monty Python (2)......................... group. Python is
characterized by its use of indentation for (3)........................., and its encouragement for elegant
code by making developers do similar things in similar ways. Python is used as the main
programming choice of both Google and (4)..........................
Strengths: Excellent readability and overall philosophy Weaknesses: None
C# is a compiled, object-oriented language written by Microsoft. It is an open (5).........................,
but rarely seen on any non-Windows platform. C# was conceived as Microsoft's premium
language in its .NET Framework. It is very similar to Java in both (6)......................... and nature.
Strengths: Powerful and pretty fast
Weaknesses: Only really suitable for Windows
JavaScript is an interpreted, multi-paradigm language. A very strange one too. Despite its
name, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Java. You will rarely, if ever, see this language
outside of a web browser. It is basically a language meant to (7)......................... behaviours in web
browsers and used for things such as web form (8)......................... and AJAX style web
applications. The trend in the future seems to be building more and more complex
applications in JavaScript, even simple online games and office (9).......................... The success of
this trend will depend upon advancements in the speed of a browser's JavaScript interpreter.
If you want to be correct, the real name of this programming language is ECMAscript, although
almost nobody actually calls it this.
Strengths: it's the only reliable way to do (10)......................... web programming
Weaknesses: it's only really useful in a web browser

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D. Watch this video clip and do the exercises:

1. Who says these:

1. Programming is one of the only things in the world that that you can do where you can
sit down and just make something completely new from scratch.
2. Programming is one of the only things in the world that that you can do where you can
sit down and just make something completely new from scratch.
3. When you're programming you're teaching possibly the stupidest thing in the entire
universe a computer how to do something.
4. The best early thing was actually using software to decide when the classes in my
school would meet and that put me in a position decide which girls were in my class.
5. I was obsessed with a maps and cities when I was a kid and I taught myself how to
program.

a. Bill, created Microsoft b. Makinde, Early Facebook engineer

c. Jack, created Twitter d. Gabe, created Valve
d. Mark, created Facebook

2. Complete what James, teacher at Mount View Elementary says (7:00):

What I saw my students take away from using scratch and ……………………….. in our classroom
is that they were willing to push through ………………………… it really builds critical thinking it
builds problem-solving and it's something that they can then apply to ……………………… in the
classroom or the reading skills we integrated science with this programming and I saw my
scores go up ……………………..

3. Do you have to be a genius to become a programmer?

4. Complete this concluding sentence:

The programmers of ………………………….. are the ……………………….. of the future you know
you're going to look like you have …………………...powers compared to everybody.