Programs and Programming Languages
Programming Languages
A program is set of instructions a computer follows in order to perform a task.
A programming language is a special language used to write computer programs.
A computer program is a set of instructions that enable the computer to solve a problem or perform a task.
Collectively, these instructions form an algorithm.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of well defined steps to completing a task.
The steps in an algorithm are performed sequentially.
A computer needs the algorithm to be written using machine language.
Machine language is writtem using binary numbers.
The binary numbering system (base 2) only has two digits (0 and 1)
Machine Language
The binary numbers are encoded as a machine language.
Each CPU has its own machine language (不同的CPU)
Motorola 68000 series processors
Inter x86 series processors
DEC Alpha processors, etc.
Example of a machine language instruction: 10110100000001(机器语言二进制)
Programming Languages
In the distant past, programmers wrote programs in machine language.
Programmers developed higher level programming languages to make things easier.
The first of these was assembler
Assembler made things easier but was also processor dependent.
High level programming language followed that were not processor dependent.
Some common programming languages:
Common Language Elements
There are some concepts that are common to virtually all programming languages
Common concepts:
Key words
Operators
Punctuation
Programmer-defined identifiers
Strict syntatic rules
Compilation Process
Starting with source code (e.g. C++) and converting it into machine code that the computer can run.
When using our IDE, the process appears like this:
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