programming language concepts

midterm

syntax

the set of rules that govern the structure and formatting of a programing language dictating how symbols, words, and punctuation must be combined to form valid and executable code. 

semantics

the meaning and behavior of a program or programming language; use the mathematic relations notation below to express

imperative programming paradigm

programs tell the computer what to do

declarative programming paradigm

programs describe the characteristic of a solution

functional programming

declarative paradigm that views computation as the application of mathematical functions to data

language

a set of strings over an alphabet

interpreter 

translates each source code statement every time it is executed; process: read, eval, print, loop (REPL); used in the translation of Python 

compiler

results in a new “translated program” being stored; execution is a 2-step process

expressivity 

the breadth of ideas that can be represented and communicated in that language 

extensibility

allows programmers to define new languages features and extend the current features of a language

abstraction

mechanisms for hiding details

concurrency

the ability of a system to execute multiple tasks seemingly at the same time

security

how effectively a language through its design and features, helps developers write code that is resistant to vulnerabilities at attacks

modularity 

features for dividing a software system into smaller, independent, and self contained units 

maintainability

how language features impact the ease with which a software system, written in that language, can be modified, updated, extended, or repaired over time

scalability

the capacity of a system to support growth or to manage an increasing volume of work

error handling

the mechanisms and techniques used to anticipate, detect, and respond to abnormal or unexpected situations that can occur during program execution

efficiency

how effectively a language utilizes system resources

readability

how easy it is for a human to understand code written in a particular language

interoperability

the ability for two or more languages to interact as part of the same system

portability 

refers to the ability of code written in one environment to function correctly and efficiently in another, without significant modification 

rules for defining inductive sets 

specification of base elements (base case), zero or more inductive rules that define memberships of new elements in terms of existing elements, closure rule that specifies that the set does not contain any elements other than those specified by the base case and the other case

parse trees

show syntax structure; internal nodes for non-terminals; leaf nodes for terminals

derivation

the sequence of applications of grammar rules that makes the completed string of terminals from a grammar start symbol.

sentential form 

a string of symbols derived from the start symbol of a grammar

design patterns

a general, reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in many contexts in software design

visitor design pattern

separates the algorithm from the object structure; because of this separation, new operations can be added to existing object structures without modifying the structures

scope 

the locations in a program where a definition is visible and has an effect

lexical scoping

the binding of a variable to a value is based on the code syntax structure

dynamic scoping

to reconcile a reference to a non-local variable, one must trace the run-time history of the variable