Programming Languages

Language Design Issues

Why study programming languages
Language development
Software architectures
Design goals
Attributes of a good programming
language
Language paradigms
Standardization and internationalization
 Why study programming
languages
To improve your ability to develop
effective algorithms

To improve your use of existing

programming languages

To increase your vocabulary of useful

programming constructs
 Why study programming
languages
To allow a better choice of programming
language

To make it easier to learn a new language

To make it easier to design a new language

 Language development
Numerically based languages
Computing mathematical expressions
FORTRAN, Algol, Pascal, PL/1, BASIC, C, C++

Business languages
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language)
English-like notation
 Language development
Artificial intelligence languages
Tree search; Rule-based paradigm
LISP (LISt Processing)
PROLOG (PROgramming in LOGic)

System languages
C, C++
Script languages: AWK, Perl, TCL/TK

Web programming: HTML, XML, Java,

Microsoft *.NET family
 Software architectures
Mainframe era

Batch processing (batches of files)

Interactive processing (time sharing)
Effects on language design
File I/O in batch processing
Error handling in batch processing
Time constraints in interactive processing
 Software architectures
Personal computers
Interactive processing
Embedded system environments

Effects on language design

No need for time sharing
Good interactive graphics
Non-standard I/O devices for embedded systems
 Software architectures
Networking era
Client-server model of computing
Server: a program that provides information
Client - a program that requests information

Effects on language design

Interaction between the client and server programs
Active web pages, Security issues, Performance
 Design Goals

During 1950s--1960s - Run-time considerations

Programmers are cheap, machines
expensive; Keep the machine busy

Today - program development time considerations

CPU power and memory are very cheap
 Attributes of a good
language
Conceptual integrity
Orthogonality
Naturalness for the application
Support for abstraction
Ease of program verification
Programming environment
Portability of programs
Cost of use
 Language paradigms
Imperative / procedural languages
Applicative / functional languages
Rule-based / declarative languages
Object-oriented languages
 Imperative / procedural languages

Statement oriented languages that

change machine state
(C, Pascal, FORTRAN, COBOL)

Computation: a sequence of machine

states (contents of memory)
Syntax: S1, S2, S3, ... where S1, S2,
are statements
 Applicative / functional languages

Programming consists of building the

function that computes the answer
Computation: Function composition is
major operation (ML, LISP)
Syntax: P1(P2(P3(X)))
 Rule-based / declarative
languages

Computation: Actions are specified by

rules that check for the presence of
certain enabling conditions. (Prolog)
The order of execution is determined
by the enabling conditions, not by the
order of the statements.
Syntax: Condition Action
 Object-oriented languages

Imperative languages that merge

applicative design with imperative
statements (Java, C++, Smalltalk)

Syntax: Set of objects (classes)

containing data (imperative concepts)
and methods (applicative concepts)
 Language standardization

The need for standards - to increase

portability of programs
Problem: When to standardize a language?
If too late - many incompatible versions
If too early - no experience with language
Problem: What happens with the software developed
before the standardization?
Ideally, new standards have to be compatible
with older standards.
 Internationalization
I18N issue - How to specify languages
useful in a global economy?
What character codes to use?
Collating sequences? - How do you
alphabetize various languages?
Dates? - What date is 10/12/01?
10-12-01? 12.10.01 ?
Is it a date in October or December?
 Internationalization
Time? - How do you handle
time zones,
summer time in Europe,
daylight savings time in US,
Southern hemisphere is 6 months out of
phase with northern hemisphere,
the date to change from summer to
standard time is not consistent.
Currency? - How to handle dollars, pounds,
marks, francs, euros, etc.
 Programming environments
Programming environment:
the environment in which programs
are created and tested.
Separate compilation
Separate execution
Testing
Debugging
 Programming environments

Effects on language design:

Modular organization
Local/global variables
Libraries
 Programming environments
Process control languages
Scripting languages
Usually interpreted,
Able to process programs and data files
Specify a sequence of operations on
program and data files.
Awk, Perl, Tcl/Tk
 Summary

Language design must:

Allow program solution to match
problem structure
Allow for world-wide use
Be easy to prove correctness of
solutions