W4 - HISTORY AND TYPES OF COMPUTERS AND PROGRAMMING

Question 1

W4-1: EARLY PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Answer 1

focused on LANGUAGE STRUCTURE and invented many of the key elements we see today including variables, sorting, constants, procedures, functions, comments

Question 2

W4-2: (a) PLATFORM

(b) LOW-LEVEL
(c) HIGH-LEVEL

Answer 2

(a) PLATFORM = OS + hardware

(b) LOW-LEVEL: run on the HARDWARE, the “bare metal”
_ OS and DEVICE DRIVERS programmed for the specific hardware
=> EX: Assembler, C, C++ run on x86 architecture

(c) HIGH-LEVEL: use the services of LOW-LEVEL CODE allowing programming to be independent of underlying hardware
_ EX: USER-FACING applications which run on the OS
1/ C++ for high performance GAMES
2/ Python for general purpose

Question 3

W4-3: How many types of PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES?

Answer 3

=> 3
(a) COMPILED Languages

(b) HYBRID Languages

(c) INTERPRETED/Scripting Languages
1/ COMMAND Language Interpreter (CLI)
2/ DATA-ORIENTED Languages (like SQL)
3/ EMBEDDABLE Languages

Question 4

W4-4: COMPILED Languages

Answer 4

TRANSLATORS generate MACHINE code from SOURCE code before a program can be run

EX: C, C++, and Objective-C are compiled.
_ Fast but less flexible than INTERPRETED languages.
_ Variables statically typed: data types declared by programmer

Question 5

W4-5: HYBRID Languages

Answer 5

first compiled into platform-NEUTRAL BYTECODE and then interpreted by a VIRTUAL machine on LOCAL platform

EX: Java, C#, and Python

Question 6

W4-6: INTERPRETED/Scripting Languages

Answer 6

LINE-BY-LINE executors of source code
   _ NOT compiled
   _ Little pre-runtime translation 
   _ Slower but flexible and reactive. 
   _ Variables dynamically typed at run time

Question 7

W4-7: COMMAND Language Interpreter (CLI) (or a SHELL that runs SCRIPTS)

Answer 7

EX: MS-PowerShell and *nix Bash

Question 8

W4-8: DATA-ORIENTED Languages (like SQL)

Answer 8

designed for management of data in RELATIONAL databases
_ SQL with its stored procedures is NOT a general purpose programming language;
_ SQL is RDBMS specific

Question 9

W4-9: EMBEDDABLE Languages

Answer 9

are designed to be EMBEDDED within other TEXT or CONTENT, such as a WEB PAGE
_ Web SERVERS process SCRIPT commands (PHP) embedded in a dynamic HTML file before generated HTML is sent to CLIENT (browser).
_ On the browser, JavaScript runs from INSIDE the HTML.

Question 10

W4-10: “Languages” which are NOT programming languages

Answer 10

(a) HTML: HyperText Markup Language for the Web
(b) CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
(c) XML: eXtensible Markup Language

Question 11

W4-11: HTML: HyperText Markup Language for the Web

Answer 11

<p>Paragraph<b>text</b></p>

browser formats/renders

Question 12

W4-12: CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

Answer 12

separate PRESENTATION style and APPEARANCE from CONTENT

font, size, colours for a DOM object e.g. a paragraph

Question 13

W4-13: XML: eXtensible Markup Language

Answer 13

DOCUMENT and DATA encoding markup language

EX: for DATA structures used in WEB services

Question 14

W4-14: ComputerHARDWARE

Answer 14

is what you can physically TOUCH

_ Hardware DEVICES are PHYSICAL parts of a computer system

Question 15

W4-15: HARDWARE devices: PERIPHERAL devices

Answer 15

_ Some hardware devices are residing INSIDE the computer CASE like Motherboard and NIC

_ But some, are called PERIPHERAL Devices which connect to acomputersystem and add some functionality to it (like Mouse and Keyboard.)

Question 16

#W4-16: HARDWARE devices: 
(a) PROCESSING devices, 

(b) INPUT devices,
(c) OUTPUT devices
(d) INPUT and OUTPUT at the same time

Answer 16

(a) Some hardware devices are PROCESSING hardware devices like CPU, ALU, and GPU
(b) Some, are INPUT devices like Keyboard, Mic, Mouse, Digital Pen, and Scanner.
(c) Some are OUTPUT devices like Monitor, Printer, Speaker, and Plotter.
(d) And some could be considered INPUT and OUTPUT at the SAME time like HDD, CD/DVD Drive, Touch Screen, RAM, USB, Memory Card, HDMI, and VGA Connector.

Question 17

W4-17: Computer PROGRAMMING

Answer 17

a PROCESS that leads from an ORIGINAL formulation of a PROBLEM to executablecomputerPROGRAMS

Question 18

W4-18: ALGORITHM

Answer 18

a self-contained step-by-step set of OPERATIONS that solve a problem.

Question 19

W4-19: CODE

Answer 19

a set of INSTRUCTIONS programmed into a computer to perform an ALGORITHM

Question 20

W4-20: Computer PROGRAM

Answer 20

_ sets of CODE that tell acomputerwhat to do

_ written in one or more PROGRAMMING Languages

_ contained as a SOURCE CODE in a text file

_ compiled into MACHINE CODE, and executed by CPU