4.2 - programming languages + IDEs 🧑‍💻

Question 1

what tiers can programming languages be sorted into?

Answer 1

HLLs (easier for humans to read and understand due to them being closer to English in syntax and command words) and low-level machine + assembly code (the former being device-readable binary code that the latter needs to be converted into)

Question 2

why is machine code usually displayed in hexadecimal form?

Answer 2

as it’d be harder for humans to understand it in binary

Question 3

why are HLLs the best options for human programmers?

Answer 3

they’re independent of device type and also easier + quicker to understand, maintain, write in, and debug

Question 4

how can HLLs be problematic?

Answer 4

it’s harder for them to make use of special hardware like low-level languages do - they can also result in larger files that take longer to execute

Question 5

when is assembly code used?

Answer 5

when programmers need to make use of special hardware and machine-dependent instructions to write code that takes up less primary memory space while also performing tasks at lightning speed

Question 6

how do compilers translate HLLs into machine code?

Answer 6

they translate each and every single HLL statement into many possible machine code combinations at the same time to produce an executable file of machine code that can be run by the general public without a compiler - an error report’s produced after all lines have been translated if any errors are found in the code

Question 7

how do interpreters translate HLLs into machine code?

Answer 7

they repeatedly translate a single HLL statement that may require lots of machine code combinations at a time during program development without producing an executable file of machine code (making interpreted programs impossible to run otherwise) - execution stops even if a single error’s found in a single line of code

Question 8

how do assemblers work?

Answer 8

they one-off translate assembly language code into binary that can be understood as machine code by a device without the need for any reassembly afterwards

Question 9

how can IDEs help programmers write and develop code?

Answer 9

through a built-in code editor, translators from the get-go, runtime + debugging environments, error diagnostics, AutoCorrect, AutoFill, and prettyprinting + indentation by variable/command type