Section 3 - Design, Testing and Translators

Question 1

Describe what is meant by structured programming

Answer 1

Structured programming means breaking down the main program into smaller, manageable modules.

Question 2

Give an advantage of using structured programming when developing a program

Answer 2

Coding is easier as objectives are smaller and simpler

Question 3

Define the term authentication

Answer 3

A means of confirming the identity of a user before they can access a program or part of a program

Question 4

Define the term input validation

Answer 4

Checking data meets certain criteria before passing it into the program or database

Question 5

Explain what is meant by the time efficiency of an algorithm

Answer 5

Time efficiency is a measure of how quickly an algorithm completes a task. The quicker an algorithm completes a task, the better its time efficiency.

Question 6

Give two types of translator that can turn high-level languages into machine code

Answer 6

An interpreter and a compiler

Question 7

Give two reasons why some programmers still use low-level languages

Answer 7

They may need to have a greater control over the program in order to make a program with lower memory use.
They may be trying to maintain old code or hardware.

Question 8

Why might programmers prefer to use assembly language over machine code?

Answer 8

Assembly languages are more readable for humans than machine code.

Question 9

Give two differences between high-level and low-level languages

Answer 9

One instruction of high-level code represents many instructions of machine code
Code written in a high-level language is easy for other programmers to understand and modify.

Question 10

Which type of translator is used to translate assembly languages into machine code?

Answer 10

Assembler