0% found this document useful (0 votes)
20 views15 pages

Unit 3

This document outlines the fundamentals of programming, including the definition of programming, the importance of algorithms and flowcharts, and the program development life cycle. It details the steps involved in programming, such as program specification, design, coding, testing, documentation, and maintenance, as well as the various types of programming languages. Additionally, it emphasizes the necessity of understanding both procedural and object-oriented programming languages for effective problem-solving in computing.

Uploaded by

Prudhvi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
20 views15 pages

Unit 3

This document outlines the fundamentals of programming, including the definition of programming, the importance of algorithms and flowcharts, and the program development life cycle. It details the steps involved in programming, such as program specification, design, coding, testing, documentation, and maintenance, as well as the various types of programming languages. Additionally, it emphasizes the necessity of understanding both procedural and object-oriented programming languages for effective problem-solving in computing.

Uploaded by

Prudhvi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 15

UNIT 3 PROGRAMMING

Structure

3.0 Objectives

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Algorithm and ~lqw Charts

3.3 Program Development Life Cycle

3.3.1 Program Specification

3.3.2 Program Design

3.3.3 Program Code


3.3.4 Program Testing

3.3.5 Program Documentation

3.3.6 Program Maintenance

3.4 Types of Programming

3.4.1 Procedural Languages

3.4.2 Object Oriented Programming Languages

3.4.3 Special Purpose Languages

3.5 Generations of Programming Languages


3.5.1 Machine Language

3.5.2 Assembly Language

3.5.3 High Level Languages

3.5.4 Fourth Generation Languages

3.5.5 Natural Languages

3.6 Summary

3.7 Answers of Self Check Exercises

3.8 Keywords

3.9 References and Further Reading

3.0 OBJECTIVES

In the previous Unit you have learnt about basics of computer software. In this Unit we
will discuss about programming and programming languages.

After reading the Unit, you will be able to:

• understand the basics of programming;

• be acquainted with different categories of programming languages; and

• become familiar with types programming languages.

72
Programming
3.1 INTRODUCTION
A computer can neither think nor make decisions on its own. To solve a problem using
computers, a set of instructions should be given to the computer in a form which it can
understand. The process of writing these instructions is called programming.

Understanding what programming is can be explained by taking a simple and well-known


example. Consider searching a dictionary for a word.

The manual solution to this problem is to take out the dictionary and search pages for the
initial letter of the word. Once the word is found, search for the subsequent letters of the
word and on finding the word, read out its meaning given in the dictionary.

Let us assume a dictionary is available in a computer. We need to write a program to


solve this problem of searching a word in the dictionary. The algorithm to solve the problem
is given below:

1) Take the word to be searched as input

2) Match the words available in the dictionary one by one until the exact match is
found. (It is the simplest logic but we can apply more efficient logic)

3) Display the meaning as output for the input word.

This solution is in natural language which computers cannot understand. Therefore, we


need to write it in a language, as a set of instructions, which computers can understand.
Such a set of instructions that are arranged in a sequence that guides the computer to
solve a problem is called a program.

The process of writing a program is called Programming. It involves solving a problem


and writing it in a form which a computer system can understand and execute.
While considering how to solve a problem, there are three main specifications which
should be taken into consideration:

• What information flows into the system?

• What information flows out of the system?

• What the system does with the information?

Computers cannot understand natural languages such as English or Hindi for solving
problems. To communicate instructions and commands we need programming languages.
And learning programming languages requires learning the symbols, words and rules of
the language. There are many languages available to do programming. These are developed
for specific applications. Based on these applications, programs are of two types, system
programs and application programs.

System program: These are the programs which make computers available to use.
Operating Systems such as DOS and Windows which consist of many other programs
.for controlling input/output devices, memory, processor etc are system programs. The C
language is widely used to develop system software.

Application program: Application programs are designed for specific application such
as library automation, information retrieval, information processing, inventory control, etc.
These applications should be able to get input, produce output, do calculations, store and
retrieve data. There are many languages which contain instructions to support all these
operations. Before continuing with programming, we look at what algorithms and flow
charts are and how these helps in programming.
73
:::omputer Technology Self Check Exercise
1) What do you call a list of instructions for the computer to follow to process data?
Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below. <I

ii) Check your answer at the end of this Unit.

3.2 ALGORITHM AND FLOW CHARTS


Computers are used for problem solving, automating and processing of data and information.
The computer does it based on the instructions it receives through various programming
languages such as C, C++ or a variety of others. The set of instructions given to the
computer to perform a job is called a program which is nothing but an algorithm expressed
in language known as programming language. Thus, as mentioned earlier writing a program
requires knowledge of the programming language. However, the set of instructions can
also be expressed independent of any programming language which is called algorithm.
There are many defmitions of algorithm. According to Dromey, "algorithm consists of a
set of explicit and unambiguous finite steps which, when carried out for a given set of
initial conditions, produce the corresponding output and terminate in a finite time."
In the previous section, we discussed about an algorithmic process of looking for the
meaning of a word from a dictionary. This kind of algorithmic process can be used for
problem solving using computers.
To obtain solution to a problem through the computer, usually we have to provide the
computer program with input or data. The program then takes this input and manipulates
it according to its instructions and eventually produces an output which represents the
computer solution to the problem.
Algorithms are written in a unique language and style. The way and language used to
write an algorithm is its representation. A natural language like English can be used to
write algorithms. Let us take a simple problem of adding numbers from 1 to on' (that is
if 'n'= 4, then it should add 1+2+3+4). If the algorithm is written for this problem in
natural language, it would read as follows:
Initially set the sum value to 0 and count to 1. Accept on' as input from the user. If
the value of On' is 0 then print the value of sum as O. If the value is greater than 0
then add the count till it reaches the input value 'n'. Each time after addition
increase the count value.
It can be noticed that even for this small problem, the natural language is unstructured. In
case of huge problem, the natural language algorithm will be difficult to understand while
programming.
The next choice of writing the algorithm may be in formal languages like C, C++, etc.
But, at the initial phase of design one would be thinking and writing at a highly abstract
level. Using a programming language forces the use of punctuations and syntax properly
which cannot be done at this early stage of design. The algorithm should be syntax free
of the programming language.
A language between a natural and formal language is necessary to write algorithms
74 efficiently. There is a notation called pseudo code which is most commonly used to write
Programming
algorithms. It is simple, readable and has no grammatical rules. As it has very well defined
structure it is easy to visualize the organisation of statements. As pseudo code resembles
many of the programming languages, it is easy to convert the algorithm to programs.
Algorithm for the above problem in pseudo code is as follows:
Step 1 Initialize the variable Count to 1 for counting the addition.
Step 2 Initialize the variable Sum to 0 to store the sum.
Step 3 Get the input value 'Num' for number of times sum has to be performed.
Step 4 Add Count with Sum and assign it to Sum.
Step 5 Increase Count to next value.
Step 6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 till Count exceeds the value of Num.
Algorithms can also be pictorially represented using flow charts. The flow charts give
easy and clear understanding of algorithms. The understanding of algorithm is made easy
by flow charts, compared to textual representation algorithm.

Flow chart symbols

Flow chart has many symbols for basic operation in programming. The flow chart symbols
are:
i) Terminal
C_)
This is usually to represent terminal points in a program like BEGIN, END, START,
STOP.
ii) Input/Output

The parallelogram represents the Input/Output function, i.e., making the data available
for processing (input) or recording of the processed information (output). This step implies
obtaining a number from an input device (say, the keyboard and storing it in the storage
location named' A')

iii) Process

The rectangle represents the processing operation. A process changes or moves data.
An assignment is normally represented by this symbol.

iv) Flow direction

----I~
•••••
f----

Lines or arrows represent the flow direction - the flow of control. Normally the flow
direction is from left to right or top to bottom. 75
Computer Technology v) Annotation

-------~_~I
A broken line .and rectangle as above represent the annotation function - the addition of
. descriptive comments or explanatory notes for clarification of some statements.

vi) Decision making symbol

The diamond represents a decision or switching type of operations that determines which
of the alternative paths is to be followed. A decision indicates a question that can be
answered yes or no (or true or false).

vii) Connector

Circle is connector symbol which is used to represent functions in a flow line, i.e., the
part of flow chart which continues in the next or another page.

viii) Pre-defined process

[1_D
The double sided rectangle represents a named process that consists of one or more
operations or programming steps that are specified elsewhere such as a module or
subroutine.

Self Check Exercise

2) What is the difference between an algorithm and flow chart?

Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below.

ii) Check your answer with the answers given at the end of this Unit.

76
Programming
3.3 PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
Programming is a six-step procedure for creating the list of instructions. Normally,
one would assume programming involves typing or keying in statements into a
computer. However, this is only one of the steps in program development. The six steps
are as follows:

3.3.1 Program Specification


Program specification is also called program definition or program analysis. The step
involves specifying five tasks, namely (1) the program's objectives, (2) the desired output,
(3) the input data required, (4) the processing requirements, and (5) the documentation.
Desired output is totally as per the users requirements which is achieved out of requirement
analysis by the software system analyst.

Program objectives
We have learnt that programming involves solving problems. Therefore, at the outset, it is
essential to make a clear statement of the problem that you are tying to solve. An example
could be, "To develop a bibliographic database that can be searched by various fields".

Desired outputs
It is best always to specify outputs before inputs. The end result that is required from the
computer system should be noted down.

Input data
Once the output is known, the input data and the source data can be determined and
identified.

Processing requirements
In this step, the processing tasks that must happen for input data to be passed ou~ into
output is defined.

Program specification document


Ongoing documentation is essential in programming. All the activities such as the program
objectives, desired outputs, needed inputs and required processing should be recorded.

3.3.2 Program Design


After program specification, the program design is carried out. Here, you plan a solution
using structured programming techniques. These techniques consist of top-down program
design, pseudocode, flowcharts and logic structures.

Now that outputs and inputs of the program are defined, a top-down program design can
be used to identify the program's processing steps. Such steps are called program modules
(or just modules). Each module is made up of logically related program statements.
Pseudocode is an outline of the logic of the program you will write. It is like doing a
summary of the program before it is written. Flow charts have already been discussed in
the previous section. Finally logic structure involves defining the sequence (one program
statement follows the other), selection (when a decision must be made) and loop (describes
a process that may be repeated as long as a certain condition remains true).

3.3.3 Program Code


Writing the program is called coding. Here the logic that was developed in the program
design step is used to actually write the program. The program code instructs the
computer what to do. Coding is what generally people think of when they think of
programming. As pointed out earlier, however, it is only of the six steps in the programming
processmg.
77
Computer Technology 3.3.4 Program Testing

Debugging is a programmer's word for testing and then eliminating the errors. It means
running the program on a computer and then fixing the parts that do not work.
Programming errors are of two types, syntax errors and logic errors.

A syntax error is a violation of the rules of the programming language. For example, in
C++, each statement must end with a semicolon (;). If the semi-colon is omitted, the
program will not run due to a syntax error. A logic error occurs when the programmer
uses an incorrect calculation or leaves out a programming procedure. For example, a
payroll program that does not compute overtime hours would have logic error.

Several methods have been devised for finding and removing both syntax and logic errors.
These are:

• Desk checking: In desk checking, a programmer proofreads a printout of the program


line-by-line looking for the errors.

• Manually testing with sample data: Using a calculator and sample data, a programmer
follows each program statement and performs every calculation. Looking for
programming logic errors, the programmer compares the manually calculated values
to the correct values.

• Attempt at translation: The program is run through a computer, using a translator


program. The translator attempts to translate the written program from the
programming language into the machine language. Before the program will run,
it must be free of syntax errors. Such errors will be identified by the translating
program.

• Testing sample data on the computer: After all syntax errors have been corrected,
the program is tested for logic errors. Sample data is used to test the correct execution
of each program statement.

• Testing by a select group of potential users: This is sometimes called beta testing.
It is usually the final step in testing a program. Potential users try out the program
and provide feedback.

3.3.5 Program Documentation

Documentation consists of written descriptions and procedures about a program and how
to use it. It is not something done just at the end of the programming process. Program
documentation is carried on throughout all the programming steps. This documentation is
typically within the program itself and is in printed documents. In this step, all the prior'
documentation is reviewed and finalized. Documentation is important for users, operators
and programmer who may be involved with the program in the future.

3.3.6 Program Maintenance

The final step is program maintenance. The purpose of maintenance is to ensure that
current programs are operating error free, efficiently, and effectively. Activities in this
area fall into two categories: operations and changing needs.

Operations activities concern locating and correcting operational errors, making


programs easier to use, and standardising software using structured programming
techniques. For properly designed programs these activities should be minimal. Changing
needs are unavoidable. All organisations change over time, and their programs must change
with them.
78
Self Check Exercise Programming

3) What are the six steps in programming? What role does coding play in program
development?

Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below.

ii) Check your answer with the answers given at the end of this unit.

3.4 TYPES OF PROGRAMMING


We have learnt in the previous sections that programming is writing a set of instructions.
If it as simple as that then why can't we use one programming language? Programming
languages are designed to meet specific needs. Consequently, one language may be better
suited than others for writing certain kinds of functions. There are programming languages
that are used for solving engineering problems, writing out complicated sales reports,
interact with databases, manipulate graphics or even design web pages. So, with
proliferation of programming tasks, proliferation of programming languages has also taken
place. Let us see the various families of programming languages and the types of
programming languages that belong to them.

3.4.1 Procedural Languages


Languages in which programs are written as sequence of statements that manipulate
data item and change the contents of memory cells are called procedural languages (also
called imperative languages).

The fundamental operation of these languages are storing and retrieving data values. For
example;

a=l

This statement stores value 1 in location 'a'

c=a+b

This statement retrieves 'a' and' b', adds and stores the result in 'c '. Some of the
procedural languages are discussed below.

FORTRAN

The name FORTRAN derives from FORmula TRANslation. The name itself indicates
that 'application of language with 'formula' of engineering-type application'. The first
commercial version of FORTRAN was released in 1957. This makes FORTRAN the
first high-level programming language. FORTRAN has some features ideally suitable for
problems that are heavily mathematical or computational oriented. High-level languages
are basically English like computer languages where we have 'higher' level of understanding
79
·.
Computer Technology as compared to Assembly and Machine languages. Programming languages like COBOL,
PASCAL, C, C++, BASIC etc also come under this category.

COBOL

The name COBOL derives from Common Business Oriented Language. COBOL
was designed to serve business needs such as managing inventories and payrolls. In such
applications summary reports are important output. Also data file handling is extensively
involved. Much of the business world concerns updating master files with change in
transaction files. For example master file contain names, manufacturers, and quantities
available for various items inventory; a transaction file would contain names, quantities
and items sold out of inventory over a period of time. The master file would be updated
from the transaction file on weekly or daily basis to reflect new quantities available and
print summary report.

PASCAL
The programming language Pascal was named after Blaise Pascal, the inventor of
Pascaline calculator.

The design of Pascal was to easily learn and enforce good programming techniques.
Pascal looks very similar to pseudocode. So it is easy to read and the syntax is easy to
learn. Even though Pascal is not much useful as commercial language, but programming
environment like Delphi uses Pascal language with a facility to develop windows based
applications with modem graphical user interface.

C
C was developed in early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell Laboratories. It was
originally developed for system programming, particularly for writing operating system
UNIX. It is a popular general-purpose language for two reasons. One is the relationship
with UNIX. Second reason is its efficiency that is, speed with which its operations can be
executed. The efficiency derives from the fact that C programs can make use of low-
level information such as knowledge of where data is stored in memory, yet has powerful
statements and portability to machines that high-level languages offer.

The strong feature of C is that it provides a data type called pointer. Variables of pointer
type contain memory addresses instead of integers, real numbers and characters. For
example the statement,

int* intPointer;

declares intPointer as a pointer variable that will contain the address of a memory location
containing integer data.

int A = 3;
intPointer = & A.
The first statement declares a variable called 'A' and assigns the value '3' to that. The
second statement makes the intPointer pointing to 'A'. We can also assign the integer
value '10' to variable 'A' by the statement

*intPointer = 10;

The powerful use of pointers are in the areas of writing system programming, operating
systems, assemblers, and programs that allows the computer to interact with input/output
devices and so on.

For example consider a problem of writing a device driver (software to interact with a
hardware device) for mouse on a PC. The port in which the mouse is connected reads
the changes in mouse position by voltage levels. It stores voltage levels in a fixed location
of memory. C provides facilities to access this memory and manipulate it.

Even though C is powerful for system programming it is widely used for general purpose
80 programming also.
ADA Programming

Ada development was for a common high-level language needed for various branches
of United States armed services for defense contracts. Ada is a large language like C++
and has been accepted not only in the defense industry, but also for other technical
applications and is a general-purpose language as well.

Ada is known for its multi-processing capability - the ability to allow multiple tasks to
execute independently and then synchronize the communication when directed.

3.4.2 Object Oriented Programming Languages


Object Oriented Programming started by Alan Kay's work at Xerox Palo Alto Research
Centre in early 1970s. The resulted language is Smalltalk.

The concept of Object-oriented programming is dividing the major task into sub tasks.
The program can be thought of a giant statement executor designed to carry out major
tasks, even though the main program may simply call the various modules that do the sub
task work.

To understand objects, let us take an example oflibrary system. Circulation, Acquisition,


Catalogue, etc are major objects. Each object is an example of a task performed in
library system.

JAVA
Java programming is associated with the World Wide Web. Java programs can access
data across the Web as easily as they access data from a local system. According to the
Sun Microsystems, Java is asimple, object oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure,
architecture neutral, portable, high-performance, multithreaded and dynamic language.
Multithreading is the ability of an application to perform multiple tasks at the same time.
Multithreaded programs can be created through Java.

3.4.3 Special Purpose Languages

The procedural languages that we saw so far are more or less general-purpose
languages. There are several special purpsse languages designed for specialised
tasks. Here we take three representative special purpose languages which are very
popularly used.

Structured Query Language (SQL)

SQL is designed to be used with databases, which are collections of related facts and
information. A database stores data centrally. The user of the database must be able to
add new data and to retrieve data already stored. For example, a database of library
catalogue may contain titles of book, its author's name, publisher name, year of publication,
etc. The database of catalogue user should be able to add information on a book and to
retrieve information on a book already in the database. In addition, databases can also be
queried with the user posing questions to the database. For example, the library catalogue
could be queried to reveal books by a particular author or by a publisher. Such queries
may be framed in SQL. SQL is the language used to frame database queries. Sample
SQL statement is as follows:

SELECT BOOK_TITLE, PUBLISHER, YEAR

FROM CATALOGUE

WHERE AUTHOR NAME = "GUHA";


81
Comput~r Technology This SQL statement will retrieve all the book titles with publisher and year details of the
author Guha.

Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL)

Perl is designed to scan arbitrary text files, extract various kinds of information that is
contained within the text, and print reports based on the extracted information. The
language syntax is somewhat based on C. Perl uses sophisticated pattern matching
techniques to speed up the process of scanning large amounts of data for a particular text
string.

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)

This is the language used to create HTML documents that, when viewed with Web
browser software, become Web pages. An HTML document consists of the text to be
displayed on the Web page, together with a number of special characters called tags that
achieve formatting, special effects, and references to other HTML documents. Tags are
enclosed in angle brackets (<» and often come in pairs. The end tag, the second tag in
the pair, looks like the begin tag, the first tag in the pair, but with an additional I in front.

The format for an HTML document is

<html>

<head>

<title> text that is to appear as title <Ititle>

</head>

<body> .

text that is to appear as body on the page

</body

<lhtml>

Self Check Exercise

4) Write an SQL statement to display the books issued from the library for a member
named Amit.

Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below.

ii) Check your answer with the answers given at the end of this unit.

82
Programming
3.5 GENERATIONS OF PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGES
Programming can be done in any language such as C, C++, COBOL, etc., which largely
depends according to need. But a computer executes programs only after they are
represented internally in binary form (sequences of Is and Os). Programs written in any
other language must be translated to the binary representation of the instructions before
they can be executed by the computer.
Just as hardware is classified into generations based on technology, computer languages
also have generations classification based on the level of interaction with the machine.
Since 1945 over the years, five categories or generations of programming languages
have evolved over the years which are as follows:
• First generation, 1945 - Machine language
• Second generation, mid 1950s - Assembly language
• Third generation, early 1960s - High level languages
• Fourth generation, early 1970s - Very high-level languages
• Fifth generation, early 1980s - Natural languages
Programs written for a computer may be in either one of the categories of languages.

3.5.1 Machine Language


This is a sequence of instructions written in the form of binary numbers consisting of 1s
and Oswhich the computer responds directly. The machine language was initially referred
to as code, although now the term code is used more broadly to refer to any program text.

An instruction prepared in any machine language will have at least two parts. The first
part is the Command or Operation, which tells the computer what functions, is to be
performed. All computers have an operations code for each of its functions. The second
part of the instruction is the operand. It tells the computer 'where to find' or 'store the
data' that has to be manipulated. Machine language is considered to be the first generation
. language.

3.5.2 Assembly Language


When symbols (letters, digits or special characters) are used for the operation part, the
address part and other parts of the instruction code, this representation is called an assembly
language program. This is considered to be second-generation language. Machine and
Assembly languages are referred to as low-level languages since the coding for a problem
is at the individual instruction level. Each machine has got its own assembly language
which is dependent upon the internal architecture of the processor. Both machine and
assembly languages are machine dependent.
Since a computer can execute programs only in machine language, a translator or converter
is needed if the program is written in any other language. An assembler is such a
language translator which takes its input in the form of an assembly language program
and produces machine language code in some memory location.

3.5.3 High-level Languages


High-level languages are also called procedural languages. Programming languages such
as C, COBOL, FORTRAN and BASIC are high-level languages. As the time and cost
for creating machine and assembly languages are high, the high level languages were
developed.
A program written in a high level language should be translated into a form the machine
can understand and this is done by a software (language translator) called compiler
which takes the source code input and produces as output the machine language code of
the machine on which it is to be executed. There is another kind'of software which also.
does the translation. This is called an interpreter.
Computer Technology , 3.5.4 Fourth Generation Languages
Fourth Generation Language, referred to as 4GL is a high level language that requires
significantly fewer instructions than a third generation language does to accomplish a
particular task. Thus, the programmer should be able to write a program faster in 4GL
than in third generation language. Most Fourth Generation Languages are non-procedural
languages. The programmer does not have to give the details of procedure in a program,
but instead specifies what is wanted.

For example, assume you need to display the details of a particular book (Introduction to
Computers) from the catalogue. In a procedural language, the programmer would have
to write a series of instructions in the following steps:

Step 1: Get a record from the catalogue

Step 2: If this is the record on Introduction to Computers, display the details

Step 3: If this is not the record for Introduction to Computers, go to Step 1

In a 4GL, however, the programmer would write a single instruction that says:

Get the details of Introduction to Computers from the Catalogue

Majority of fourth generation languages are used to get information from files and databases
and display or print the information. These fourth generation languages contain a query
language which is used to answer queries or questions with data from a database.

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a standard language and universally used. Like
most other computer languages like C, C++, Pascal, or Java, you need a way to use it on
your computer.

Most database applications use the SQL, as their language to communicate with the
database, like add, delete, modify the data.

3.5.5 Natural Languages


Natural languages are of two types. The first are ordinary human languages like English.
The second are programming languages that use human language to give people more
natural interaction with computers. Natural languages allow questions or commands to
be framed in a more conversational way. Natural languages are part of the field of study
known as artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is a group of related technologies
that attempt to develop machines capable of emulating human-like qualities, such as learning,
reasoning, communicating, seeing, and hearing.

Self Check Exercise


5) Name some third generation languages.

Note: i) Write your answer in the space given below.

ii) Check your answer with the answers given at the end of this unit.

84
----------------------------

Programming
3.6 SUMMARY
In this Unit, we have dealt with programming and programming languages. The focuses
of attention in this Unit are the following:

• Concept of programming and programming languages;

• Steps in programming;

• Machine, assembly and high level languages;

• Common programming languages and uses.

3.7 ANSWERSTO SELF CHECK EXCERCISES


1) Program.

2) Algorithm consists of a set of explicit and unambiguous finite steps which, when
carried out for a given set of initial conditions, produce the corresponding output and
terminate in a finite time. A pictorial representation of the algorithm using standard
symbols is a flow chart.

3) The six steps in programming are (1) Program Specification, (2) Program Design,
(3) Program Code, (4) Program Test, (5) Program Documentation and (6) Program
Maintenance. Coding is one of the steps in programming that involves the actual
writing or keying in the set of instructions in a programming language.

4) SELECT BOOK ISSUED


FROM CIRCULATION DATA
WHERE BORROWER NAME = "Amit"

5) Some third generation languages are C, C++, BASIC and FORTRAN.

3.8 KEYWORDS
Application program : Program that has been developed to solve a particular problem,
perform useful work on general-purpose tasks, or provide
entertainment

Assembly language : It is a low level programming language that allows a computer


user to write a program using abbreviations or more easily
remembered words instead of numbers.

Compiler : A language translator that converts the entire program of a


high-level language into machine language before the computer
executes the program.

High level language : Also known as the procedural language it resembles human
languages such as English.

Interpreter : A language translator that converts each procedural language


statement into machine language and executes it immediately.

Machine language : A binary type low-level language consisting of Is and Os that


the computer can run directly.

System program : Program that helps the computer to perform essential operating
tasks and enables the application program to run.
85
Computer Technology
3.9 REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Droomy, R.G. (2004). How to solve it by computer. New Delhi: Prentice Hall of India.

O'Leary, Timothy J. and O'Leary, Linda I. (2002). Computing essentials 2002-2003.


International Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Pratt, Terrence W. and Zelkowitz, Marvin V. (2003). Programming languages: design


and implementation. 4th Edition. New Delhi: Pearson Education.

Schneider, G. Michael and Gersting, Judith L. (1998). An introduction to computer science.


2nd Edition. California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

Williams, Brian K. and Sawyer, Stacey C. (2003). Using information technology: a


practical introduction to computers and communications. 5th Edition. New Delhi:
Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing.

You might also like