Programming Language for SS1

Definition of Terms

Program : A computer program is a sequence of related instruction

(command) that tell the computer how to accomplish a specific task. A
program can also be defined as a set of instruction that is executed by
the CPU.
Programming: Programming is the act of writing computer program. A
computer program are written by trained and qualify people called
programmer.
Computer language: Computer language is a language used by, or
associated with the computer.
Programming Language: A computer programming language is an
artificial language that can be used to control the behavior of a machine
particularly a computer. Programming language is a means through
which programmer communicate with the computer in solving different
categories of problems. A set of rules governing how the words in the
language are written is called syntax and the meaning associated with
each word is called semantic. Markup languages like HTML are
generally not regarded as programming languages, but they are
computer language. Programming language foster the communication of
programs among programmers and computer; markup language
communicate the formatting or structure of document among human and
computer.
Levels of Programming Language
There are three levels of programming language
1. Machine Language
2. Low Level Language (Assembly Language)
3. High Level Language
Machine Language
This was the first generation programming language. A computer will
only understand one language, which is the machine language. There
are two symbols in machine language; these are 1 and 0 generally
called binary digits or bits.
Advantages
1. Machine language makes fast and efficient use of the computer.
2. It requires no translator to translate the code. It is directly understood
by the computer.
Disadvantages
1. All operation codes have to be remembered
2. It is machine dependent
3. It is hard to amend or find errors in a program written in the machine
language.
Low Level Language
A low Level programming Language is a programming that provides little
or no abstraction from a computer’s microprocessor. The word low does
not imply that the language is inferior to high level programming
languages but rather refers to the small or nonexistent amount of
abstraction between the language and machine: because of this, low
level languages are sometimes described as being “close to the
hardware. The example of low-level language is the assembly language,
and it was the second generation programming language, or 2GL. It was
developed to overcome some of the many inconveniences of machine
language.
Assembly language is a mnemonic representation of machine language.
It is one level above machine language. A program for translating low
assembly language is called assembler.
Advantages of Assembly Language
1. It is easier to understand and use as compared to machine language.
2. It is easy to locate and correct error as compared to machine
language
3. Program written in assembly language executes faster than that of
high level language.
Disadvantages of Assembly Language
1. Assembly language, like machine code is also machine dependent
2. Difficult to remember the syntax.
High Level Programming Language
These are programming languages that allow for programs to be written
in forms that are readable to human beings. A high level language is a
programming language that, in comparison to low level programming
languages, may be more abstract, easier to use, or more portable across
platforms.
Examples of High Level Language include
a. PASCAL
b. BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
c. C ++
d. Java
e. FORTRAN (Formula Translation)
f. COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language)
g. PROLOG
h. ALGOL (Algorithmic language)
i. APL (A Programming Language)
j. RPG (Report Program Generator)
k. Python
Advantages of High Level Language
1. It is easier to learn and use
2. It user friendly
3. Programs in high level language requires less time to write
4. It is easier to maintain
5. It is machine independent
6. It does not require programmer to have knowledge of the computer
hardware architecture.
Disadvantages of High Level Languages
1. It takes time to execute or run because it must first be translated into
machine code by a translator before it can be executed.
2. Programmers need to remember a large set of syntax and semantics.
Comparison of Machine Language, Low Level Language (assembly
language) and High Level language
Different Languages Characteristics or Features
1. Machine Language
1. Machine dependent
2. Uses special code and the assignment of storage location.
2. Low Level Language (Assembly language)
1. Machine dependent
2. Uses mnemonics(symbolic operation code) and operand (symbolic
storage address)
3. 1 to 1 language
3. High Level Language
1. Machine independent
2. Uses instructions that seem English like
3. 1 to many language, i.e. for one high level instruction, many machine
level statement may be generated.
Comparison of levels of Programming Languages
MACHINE LANGUAGE ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE HIGH LEVEL
LANGUAGE
Difficult to learn, write
and debug
It is difficult but easier
than machine language
It is easier to learn, write
and debug
It is machine
dependent
Machine dependent Machine independent
Does not require a
translator
Requires a translator
called Assembler
Requires a translator
called a compiler or
interpreter
Instructions consist of
binary digits (1’s and
0’s)
Instructions consist of
symbols and mnemonics
Instructions consist of
English-like words,
symbols and numeric.
Examples of Programming Language
The following are some of the many programming languages:
Ada, Algol, APL, BASIC, C, C++, C#, COBOL, FORTRAN, Java,
JavaScript, LISP, Pascal,
PHP, Perl, Python, Visual Basic etc.
TOPIC 5: BASIC Programming language
The BASIC programming language was developed in 1964 by John G.
Kemeny and
Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College. BASIC is an acronym that stands
for “Beginner’s AllPurpose Symbolic Instruction Code”
Basic Character Set
A character set is simply a list of letters, numbers and symbols that
provide one with the
characters used in a particular language. BASIC as a language has its
own character set,
they include the following:
· Alphabets characters (A to Z or a to z)
· Numeric character (0, 1 to 9) including hexadecimal characters.
· Special characters (such as $,#,!, ^ etc.) that perform special functions
in BASIC
Arithmetic operators
CHARACTER NAME USE
* Asterisk For multiplication, e.g. A*B or (3*5)
- Minus For subtraction, e.g. M-N or (4-1)
+ Plus For addition, e.g. K+N or (1+6)
/ Forward slash For real division, e.g. A/B or
(7/3)=2.33
\ Bask slash For integer division, e.g. P\G or
(7\3)=2
^ Caret For exponentiation, e.g. A^B or
(7^3)
Relational (Comparison) Operator
CHARACTER NAME USE
= Equal to A=B
> Greater than A>B
< Less than A<B
> = Greater than or Equal to A >=B
< = Less than or Equal to A <= B
Data types
Data type is a description of the set of values and the basic set of
operation that can be
applied to values of the type.
i) Integers: a positive or negative number without decimal. It has a range
of values from -
32,768 to 32,767. Each value is stored using 2 bytes of memory
(storage) space.
ii) Real numbers: numbers with fractional parts or with a decimal point. It
is stored using
4 bytes of memory space.
iii) Boolean: consist of only two values; “YES and NO” or “True or False”
or 1 or 0.
iv) String: a sequence of characters in double quote. For example,
“Computer Studies” is a
string value with 16 characters. Each character is stored using 8 bits
(one byte) in the
ASCII character set and two byte in the UNICODE character set.
Alphabet is represented
in ASCII.
Keyword
Keywords are words that have special meaning and function in BASIC.
Such words must
be used strictly according to their functions, otherwise the computer will
respond with
error message.
Here are some of the BASIC keywords and their uses
KEYWORDS USE EXAMPLE
REM Make comment about an instruction or about 10 REM Program to
the whole program add two numbers
INPUT Used to ask the user to supply the data to be
processed while the program is executing
5 INPUT A,B,C
PRINT Used to display the output of operation on the
screen
PRINT “The values”,
A,B
LET Used to assign a value to a variable 3 LET A=5
READ Used to tell the computer that the data to be
processed is supplied within the program
statements. Used together with DATA
keyword
10 READ A,B
DATA Used to show the computer the data it is
asked to read in the READ statement. Used
along with READ keyword.
10 DATA 4,7
END To end the program 5 END
Variables and Constant
A variable is an identifier or a name of a memory location where data
(values) can be
placed or stored. Because the value placed in a memory location can be
changed at any
time, we call such memory location “a variable”. However, when the
value of a memory
location is not to be changed, we refer to such memory location as
“constant”.
Declaration of Variables and Constants
When you are to supply data to the computer for processing, you are
required to state the
data type. This help the computer to interpret it and an appropriate
storage space is
reserved for the data. To achieve this, the keyword DIMENSION (or
DIM) is used to specify
the data type. For example, variable Name and Pie are to hold
“character and real” data
values respectively. This can be written in BASIC as follows:
1. DIM Char Name, INT Age, REAL Height
2. DIM Name AS Char, Age AS INT, Height AS Real
3. DIM Name$, Age%, Height!
Rules for naming Variable
1. Every variable must begin with an English alphabet (A to Z or a to z).
2. The name must not be more than 40 characters in length.
3. Names can be alphanumeric (combinations of alphabet and numbers
4. Name must not be any keyword
5. Do not include a blank space in the name.
Basic Expression
A BASIC expression is formed when two or more characters, strings,
variables or
constants are combined with arithmetic, relational or logical operators
Examples include:
1. F2 + 7 (add 7 to the value in the variable F2)
2. A+ B (add the value in A to the value in B)
Arithmetic expression and their BASIC expression
Algebraic expression BASIC expression
A ÷ B A/B
2b2+5c 2*(b^2)+5*c
-b±√b2-4ac/(2a)
(-b+sqr(b^2 – 4*a*c))/2*a
Arithmetic operation precedence
The rule that guides the order in which operation must be performed in
an expression is
known as “precedence” rule.
THE ORDER SYMBOL NAME
1 ( ) Bracket
2 ^ Exponentiation
3 - Negation
4 *or / Multiplication
5 \ Integer
6 MOD Modulo (remainder)
7 + or - Addition or subtraction
BASIC statements
A BASIC statement is any valid instruction given to the computer for
processing of data.
BASIC statement may be an expression, an assignment, a reserved
word (keyword) with or
without arguments or their logical combinations
1. Declaration statement: Every variable in a program must be declared
before it can
be used. A variable must be declared with appropriate data type.
Example of declaration
statements are
a. DIM Age AS Integer
b. DIM Name AS Character
2. Assignment statement: This statement causes a computer to store a
value in a
variable. The statement has two sides separated by the equality sign (=).
a. Name = “Computer Studies”
b, Age = 16
3. INPUT statement: This statement is used to ask the user to supply
the data to be
processed while the program is executing.
a. INPUT Name$, Age% (This statement is not interactive)
b. INPUT “Enter the Name and Age”, Name, Age (This statement is
interactive)
 4. READ and DATA statement: The READ statement is used to supply
data into the
program, but unlike the INPUT statement, the programmer supplies the
data inside the
program codes using the DATA keyword.
a. READ “Enter Name and Age”, Name$, Age%
b. DATA “Jide Babs”, 20
5. PRINT statement: This statement is used to show the result of data
processed.
A simple QBASIC program
1 REM This program calculates the area of any rectangle and print the
length, width,
and area.
2 ‘To calculate the Area of a Rectangle we must know its length and
width
3 Length = 10
4 Width = 6
5 Area = length * breadth
6 PRINT “Area is “, Area
7 END
Another program solving Quadratic equation is shown below.
1. REM program to solve a quadratic equation
2. INPUT “Enter coefficients a, b, c “; a,b,c
3. Discrim = b^2 – 4*a*c
4. If Discrim > 0 then
5. Dummy = sqr(Discrim)
6. PRINT “There are 2 distinct roots”
7. PRINT “first root (X1) = “; (-b + dummy)/(2*a)
8. PRINT “Second root (X2) = ”; (-b –dummy)/ (2*a)
9. ELSEIF Discrim = 0 THEN
10. PRINT “There is only 1 root, the 2 roots coincide”
11. PRINT “double root = ”; - b / (2*a)
12. ELSE
13. PRINT “The roots are imaginary”
14. Dummy = sqr (- discrim)
15. PRINT “Real part = “; - b /(2*a)
16. PRINT “Imaginary part = ”; dummy/(2*a)
17. END IF
18. END