Programming paradigms

Introduction
Syntax and Semantics
Coding Standards and Conventions
 Course Objectives

 Not to teach specific programming languages. Haskell, C++

and Prolog languages are tools of this course.
 Studying the common concepts of programming languages.
 Studying the different paradigms and approaches.
 What is the measure of quality in a programming language?
 Construct a basis for other topics like compiler design, software
engineering, object oriented design, human computer
interaction...

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 Main books

 C. Ghezzi and M. Jazayeri. Programming

language concepts (3RD EDITION). John Wiley &
Sons, 1996
 J. C. Mitchell. Concepts in programming languages.
Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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 Goals

 Critical thinking about programming languages.

 What is a programming language!?
 Who defines it?
 How can it be changed?
 Study programming languages.
 Be familiar with basic language concepts.
 Appreciate trade-offs in language design.
 Trace history, appreciate evolution and diversity of ideas.
 Be prepared for new programming methods, paradigms.

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 Why study programming languages?

 To improve the ability to develop effective algorithms.

 To improve the use of familiar languages.
 To increase the vocabulary of useful programming
constructs.
 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.
 To simulate useful features in languages that lack them.
 To make better use of language technology wherever it
appears.

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 What makes a good language?
 Clarity, simplicity, and unity.
 Orthogonality.
 Naturalness for the application.
 Support of abstraction.
 Ease of program verification.
 Programming environments.
 Portability of programs.
 Cost of use.
 Cost of execution.
 Cost of program translation.
 Cost of program creation, testing, and use.
 Cost of program maintenance.

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 What makes a language successful?

 Expressive power.
 Ease of use for the novice.
 Ease of implementation.
 Standardisation.
 Many useful libraries.
 Excellent compilers (including open-source)
 Economics, patronage, and inertia.
Note the recent trend of big companies to create/control their
own languages: C# (Microsoft), Hack (Facebook), Go (Google),
Objective-C/Swift (Apple), Rust (Mozilla) and perhaps even
Python (Dropbox hired Guido van Rossum).

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? Why are there so many languages?
 Evolution.
 Special purposes.
 No one language is good at expressing all programming
styles.
 Personal preference.
? What makes languages evolve?
 Changes in hardware or implementation platform
 Changes in attitudes to safety and risk
 New ideas from academic or industry

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 Motivating purpose and language design
A specific purpose or motivating application provides focus for
language design - what features to include and (harder!) what
to leave out. E.g.
 Lisp: symbolic computation, automated reasoning
 FP: functional programming, algebraic laws
 BCPL: compiler writing
 Simula: simulation
 C: systems programming [Unix]
 ML: theorem proving
 Smalltalk: Dynabook [1970-era tablet computer]
 Clu, SML Modules: modular programming
 C++: object orientation
 Java, JavaScript: Internet applications
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 Program execution model

Good language design presents abstract machine.

 Fortran: Flat register machine; memory arranged
as linear array
 Lisp: cons cells, read-eval-print loop
 Algol family: stack of activation records; heap storage
 BCPL, C: underlying machine + abstractions
 Simula: Object references
 FP, ML: functions are basic control structure
 Smalltalk: objects and methods, communicating by
messages
 Java: Java virtual machine

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 Classification of programming languages

See [Link]/wiki/Programming_paradigm
for more detail:
 Imperative
procedural C, Ada, Pascal, Algol, Fortran, . . .
object-oriented Scala, C#,Java, Smalltalk, SIMULA, . . .
scripting Perl, Python, PHP, JavaScript, . . .
 Declarative
functional Haskell, SML, Lisp, Scheme, . . .
logic Prolog
dataflow Id, Val
constraint-based spreadsheets
template-based XSLT

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 Language standardisation

Consider: int i; i = (1 && 2) + 3 ;

? Is it valid C code? If so, what’s the value of i?
? How do we answer such questions!?
! Read the reference manual (ISO C Standard).
! Try it and see!
Other languages may have informal standards (defined by a
particular implementation but what do we do if the
implementation is improved?) or proprietary standards.

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 Language-standards issues

Timeliness. When do we standardise a language?

Conformance. What does it mean for a program to adhere to a
standard and for a compiler to compile a standard?
Ambiguity and freedom to optimise – Machine
dependence – Undefined behaviour.
A language standard is a treaty setting
out the rights and obligations of the
programmer and the implementer.

Obsolescence. When does a standard age and how does it get

modified?
Deprecated features.

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 Ultra-brief history
1951–55: Experimental use of expression compilers.
1956–60: Fortran, COBOL, Lisp, Algol 60.
1961–65: APL notation, Algol 60 (revised), SNOBOL, CPL.
1966–70: APL, SNOBOL 4, Fortran 66, BASIC, SIMULA,
Algol 68, Algol-W, BCPL.
1971–75: Pascal, PL/1 (Standard), C, Scheme, Prolog.
1976–80: Smalltalk, Ada, Fortran 77, ML.
1981–85: Smalltalk-80, Prolog, Ada 83.
1986–90: C++, SML, Haskell.
1991–95: Ada 95, TCL, Perl.
1996–2000: Java, JavaScript
2000–05: C#, Python, Ruby, Scala.
1990– : Open/MP, MPI, Posix threads, Erlang, X10
MapReduce, Java 8 features.
For more information:
[Link]/wiki/History_of_programmin
g_languages
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 Syntax and Semantics

 Syntax: the form and structure of a program.

 Semantics: meaning of a program
 Language definitions are used by:
 Programmers
 Implementors of the language processors
 Language designers

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 Definitions

 A sentence is a string of characters over some alphabet

 A language is a set of sentences
 A lexeme is the lowest level syntactic unit of the language (i.e.
 + + , i n t , to ta l )
 A token is a category of lexemes (i.e. i d e n t i f i e r )
 syntax recognition: read input strings of the language and verify
the input belonging to the language
 syntax generation: generate sentences of the language (i.e. from
a given data structure)
 Compilers and interpreters recognize syntax and convert it into
machine understandable form.

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Definitions

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Striking style: C, C++, Java, ...

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Round style: Lisp, Scheme

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Mathematical style: ML, Haskell, ...

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Logical style: Prolog

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Verbal style: Ada, Esterel,...

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 Backus-Naur Form - Formal grammar

 Programming languages are usually in context free language

class
 BNF introduced by John Bakus and modified by Peter Naur for
describing Algol language
 It is a meta-language that decribes other languages
 Extended BNF improves readability of BNF

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Backus-Naur Form - Formal grammar

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Parse Tree

 Steps of a derivation gives the structure of the sentence. This

structure can be represented as a tree.
 All non-terminals used in derivation are intermediate nodes.
Each grammar rule replaces the non-terminal node with is
children. Root node is the start symbol.
 Terminal nodes are the leaf nodes.
 preorder traversal of leaf nodes gives the resulting sentence.
 leftmost and rightmos derivations can be retrieved by traversal of
the tree.

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Parse Tree Example

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 Coding Standards and Conventions

 Quy chuẩn đặt tên (Naming Conventions):

 camelCase: Chữ cái đầu viết thường, các từ tiếp theo viết
hoa chữ cái đầu ($thisIsMyVariable). Thường dùng cho
biến, hàm.
 PascalCase: Viết hoa chữ cái đầu của mỗi từ
($ThisIsMyVariable). Thường dùng cho Class, Interface.
 snake_case (underscore): Dùng dấu gạch dưới (_) để
phân cách các từ, viết thường toàn bộ
($this_is_my_variable). Thường dùng trong Python, PHP,
biến cục bộ.
 SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE: Viết hoa toàn bộ và dùng
gạch dưới, thường dùng cho hằng số
(CONSTANT_NAME).

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 Coding Standards and Conventions

 Quy ước về Cấu trúc và Định dạng:

 Thụt lề (Indentation): Sử dụng 2 hoặc 4 spaces/tab để
phân cấp các khối mã bên trong câu lệnh điều kiện, vòng
lặp.
 Dấu ngoặc nhọn {}: Quy ước đặt dấu ngoặc ở cuối dòng
(K&R style) hoặc xuống dòng mới (Allman style).
 Độ dài dòng: Hạn chế độ dài mỗi dòng (thường dưới 80-
120 ký tự) để dễ đọc mà không cần cuộn ngang.
 Dòng trống: Sử dụng dòng trống để phân cách các logic
khác nhau trong một hàm hoặc giữa các hàm.
 Best Practices:
 Tránh viết hàm quá dài (nên chia nhỏ).
 Tránh hard-code giá trị.
 Xử lý ngoại lệ (Exception Handling) cẩn thận.

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 Coding Standards and Conventions
 Tiền tố (Prefixes) trong đặt tên:
 Biến toàn cục: Thường có tiền tố g_.
 Biến con trỏ: Thường có tiền tố p.
 Biến tĩnh: Thường có tiền tố s.
 Tại sao cần chuẩn lập trình?
 Tính nhất quán: Giúp mã nguồn đồng bộ, dù được viết
bởi nhiều lập trình viên.
 Dễ đọc và hiểu: Giúp người khác (hoặc chính bạn trong
tương lai) nhanh chóng nắm bắt code.
 Dễ bảo trì: Dễ dàng hiểu và sửa lỗi code sau một thời
gian dài.
 Chuyên nghiệp: Nâng cao chất lượng dự án.
Các dự án thường tuân theo các hướng dẫn cụ thể như:
 PEP 8 Python
 Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide
 Java: Google Java Style Guide
 Hoặc chuẩn của từng ngôn ngữ/framework.
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Coding Standards and Conventions

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Thank You

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