Concepts of Programming Languages

Overview

Sebastian Macke

Rosenheim Technical University

Categorization of programming languages

Programming languages can be categorized in many ways

Wikipedia list of Programming Languages Categorization Lists

2

Evolution of Programming Languages

img/01-languages.png

3

Fortran I looks familiar

4

But not all used equal

5

Programming language Paradigms

6

Imperative vs Declarative I

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    <body>
        <script>
            let btn = document.createElement("button");
            btn.innerHTML = "Click Me";
            document.body.appendChild(btn);
        </script>
    </body>
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<html>
    <body>
        <button>Click Me</button>
    </body>
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7

Degress of Declarative Code

List<Integer> integers = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
int sum = 0;
for(int i = 0; i < integers.size(); i++) {
    sum += integers.get(i);
}
sum = 0;
integers.forEach(n -> {sum += n;});

sum = integers.stream().mapToInt(Integer::intValue).sum();
int sum = math.sum(integers);
8

Declarative

Sum the array of integers.
9

Categorization of Programming Language by Domains

10

Orthogonal Classifications I

11

Orthogonal classification II

Java Javascript Python C
Static / Dynamic S D D S
Compiled / Interpreted C I* I* C
Sequential / Parallel P** S** P P**
Static Linked / Dynamic Linked D -*** -*** S/D
Safe / Unsafe S S S U
Bytecode / Assembler B - - A
Platform Dependent / Cross C C C P 
* But uses just in time compiler
** Depends on standard or version
*** interpreted languages are not linked
12

Language Design Trade-Offs

Java bounds checking of all arrays accesses is expensive.

C++ allows for many abstractions, allows complex computations to be written in a compact form, but is hard to read.

C pointers are powerful and very flexible but are unreliable and error prone.

13

Some Thoughts

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”
( Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language)

14

Thank you

Sebastian Macke

Rosenheim Technical University

Sebastian.Macke@th-rosenheim.de

https://www.qaware.de

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