1.2.4 Types of Programming Languages

Programming Paradigm

The word ‘paradigm’ means to describe an example or pattern. In a Computing context, this means to describe a computational way of doing things. So it is a style or way of programming. E.g. Low-Level languages, High-Level languages, Declarative languages are all of its different examples

Procedural Language

Any high level language in which program statements can be grouped in self-contained blocks called procedures and functions. These procedures have their own variables, not accessible outside the procedure

Assembly Language

A language which is related very closely to the computer’s own machine code

Machine Code

Set of all possible instructions made available by the hardware design of a particular processor. Closest to pure binary

Low Level Language

A language which is close to machine code. Related closely to the design of the machine. A one-to-one language

High Level Language

A language designed to help a programmer express a computer program in a way that reflects the problem that is being solved, rather than the details of how the computer will produce the solution. One-to-many language

Little Man Computer

An instructional model of a computer, created by Dr. Stuart Madnick in 1965. The LMC is generally used to teach students, because it models a simple von Neumann architecture computer - which has all of the basic features of a modern computer. It can be programmed in machine code or assembly code

Immediate Addressing

Uses the data in the address field, not as an address, but as a constant that is needed by the program. An example is a routine counting up to 10, which may have the constant ‘10’ supplied in the address field of an instruction. Although the address field cannot hold numbers as large as those that can be stored as data in a memory location, because space has to be left for the operation code field, this is a particularly convenient method of loading constants into the accumulator

Direct Addressing

Uses the data in the address field without alteration. This is the simplest method of addressing and also the most common

Indirect Addressing

Uses the address field to hold the address of a location that contains the required address

Indexed Addressing

Modifies the address (either a direct or an indirect address) in the address field by the addition of a number held in a special-purpose registers, called an index register, before the address is used. Index registers are quickly and easily altered providing an efficient way of accessing a range of memory locations, such as in an array

Object Orientation

Looking at systems by classifying them into real world objects

Object Oriented Programming

A method of programming which classifies real world objects into classes and encapsulates those objects attributes and behaviors

Class

A type definition of an object

Object

An instance of a class

Base Class

contains attributes and methods. It is the highest class and does not inherit from any other class

Superclass

A class that has been extended by another class. It allows the extending class to inherit its attributes and methods

Subclass

A class that extends another class. It inherits the methods and attributes of the class it extends

Derived Class

It is any class that inherits attributes and methods from any other derived class or base class

Instantiation

The process of creating an actual named instance of class. The instantiated named copy of the class in an object of that class

Overriding

A method in a subclass or derived class which has the same name as a method in one or more of its superclass's. The method supersedes all other versions of the method above it in the inheritance tree

Method

A program routine contained within an object designed to perform a particular task on the data within the object. It can broadly be thought of as a procedure / function from more traditional procedural programming languages

Attribute

A single bit of data within a record

Inheritance

When a derived class is defined it also has all the attributes and methods of the base class

Encapsulation

All of the object's attributes are contained and hidden in the object and access to them is restricted to operations of that class

Polymorphism

It, (from the Greek meaning "having multiple forms") is the characteristic in OO programming of being able to assign a different meaning or usage to something in different contexts - specifically, to allow an object to have more than one form.