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mp pu utterer FFun
und
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pKK.. S
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nhaa &
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Ref Page Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 1/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Learning Objectives

In this chapter you will learn about:

 Computer languages or programming languages
 Three broad categories of programming languages –
machine, assembly, and high-level languages
 Commonly used programming language tools such as
assembler, compiler, linker, and interpreter
 Concepts of object-oriented programming languages
 Some popular programming languages such as
FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, C#, Java,
RPG, LISP and SNOBOL
 Related concepts such as Subprogram, Characteristics of
a good programming language, and factors to consider
while selecting a language for coding an application

Ref Page 208 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 2/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha
Broad Classification of
Computer Languages

 Machine language
 Assembly language
 High-level language

Ref Page 209 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 3/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Machine Language

 Only language of a computer understood by it

without using a translation program
 Normally written as strings of binary 1s and 0s
 Written using decimal digits if the circuitry of
the computer being used permits this

Ref Page 209 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 4/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha
A Typical Machine Language
Instruction Format

OPCODE OPERAND
(operation code) (Address/Location)

 OPCODE tells the computer which operation to perform

from the instruction set of the computer
 OPERAND tells the address of the data on which the
operation is to be performed

Ref Page 209 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 5/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample Machine Language Program

001000000000001100111001 10001471
001100000000010000100001 14002041
011000000000011100101110 30003456
101000111111011100101110 50773456
000000000000000000000000 00000000

In Binary In Decimal
(Difficult to read and understand) (Easier to read and understand)

Ref Page 209 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 6/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Advantages & Limitations of

Machine Language

Advantage

 Can be executed very fast

Limitations

 Machine Dependent
 Difficult to program
 Error prone
 Difficult to modify

Ref Page 209 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 7/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Assembly/Symbolic Language

Programming language that overcomes the limitations of machine

language programming by:

 Using alphanumeric mnemonic codes instead of numeric codes for

the instructions in the instruction set
e.g. using ADD instead of 1110 (binary) or 14 (decimal) for
instruction to add
 Allowing storage locations to be represented in form of alphanumeric
addresses instead of numeric addresses
e.g. representing memory locations 1000, 1001, and 1002 as FRST,
SCND, and ANSR respectively
 Providing pseudo-instructions that are used for instructing the
system how we want the program to be assembled inside the
computer’s memory
e.g. START PROGRAM AT 0000; SET ASIDE AN ADRESS FOR FRST

Ref Page 211 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 8/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Assembler

 Software that translates as assembly language

program into an equivalent machine language program
of a computer

Assembly Input Output Machine

language language
program Assembler program

One-to-one correspondence
(Source Program) (Object Program)

Ref Page 212 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 9/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

An Example of Assembly
Language Program

Mnemonic Opcode Meaning

HLT 00 Halt, used at the end of program to stop

CLA 10 Clear and add into A register
ADD 14 Add to the contents of A register
SUB 15 Subtract from the contents of A register
STA 30 Store A register

A subset of the set of instructions supported by a computer

Ref Page 213 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 9/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

An Example of Assembly
Language Program

START PROGRAM AT 0000

START DATA AT 1000
SET ASIDE AN ADDRESS FOR FRST
SET ASIDE AN ADDRESS FOR SCND
SET ASIDE AN ADDRESS FOR ANSR
CLA FRST
ADD SCND
STA ANSR
HLT

Sample assembly language program for adding two numbers and

storing the result

Ref Page 213 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 11/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

An Example of Assembly
Language Program

Symbolic name Memory location

FRST 1000
SCND 1001
ANSR 1002

Mapping table set up by the assembler for the data items

of the assembly language program

Ref Page 213 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 12/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

An Example of Assembly
Language Program
Memory Contents Comments
location
Opcode Address
0000 10 1000 Clear and add the number stored at FRST to A register
0001 14 1001 Add the number stored at SCND to the contents of A
register
0002 30 1002 Store the contents of A register into ANSR
0003 00 Halt
-
-
-
1000 Reserved for FRST
1001 Reserved for SCND
1002 Reserved for ANSR

Equivalent machine language program for the assembly language program

Ref Page 214 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 13/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Advantages of Assembly Language

Over Machine Language

 Easier to understand and use

 Easier to locate and correct errors
 Easier to modify
 No worry about addresses
 Easily relocatable
 Efficiency of machine language

Ref Page 214 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 14/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Limitations of Assembly Language

 Machine dependent
 Knowledge of hardware required
 Machine level coding

Ref Page 215 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 15/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Typical Uses of Assembly Language

 Mainly used today to fine-tune important parts of

programs written in a high-level language to improve
the program’s execution efficiency

Ref Page 215 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 16/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha
Assembly Languages with
Macro Instructions

 Any assembly language instruction that gets translated

into several machine language instructions is called a
macro instruction
 Several assembly languages support such macro
instructions to speed up the coding process
 Assemblers of such assembly languages are designed to
produce multiple machine language instructions for each
macro instruction of the assembly language

Ref Page 215 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 17/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

High-Level Languages

 Machine independent
 Do not require programmers to know anything about the
internal structure of computer on which high-level
language programs will be executed
 Deal with high-level coding, enabling the programmers
to write instructions using English words and familiar
mathematical symbols and expressions

Ref Page 216 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 18/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Compiler

 Translator program (software) that translates a high-

level language program into its equivalent machine
language program
 Compiles a set of machine language instructions for
every program instruction in a high-level language

Ref Page 217 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 19/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Compiler

High-level Input Output Machine

language Compiler language
program program

One-to-many correspondence
(Source (Object
Program) Program)

Ref Page 217 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 20/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Compiler

Program P1 in
Compiler for
high-level Machine code
language L1
language L1 for P1

Program P2 in Compiler for

high-level language L2 Machine code
language L2 for P2

A computer supporting languages L1 and L2

Illustrating the requirement of a separate compiler for each

high-level language supported by a computer

(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 217 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 21/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Compiler
(Continued from previous slide..)

Compiler for
language L1 Machine code for Executed on
on computer A P1 that will run computer A
on computer A

Program P1 in high-
level language L1 Same results
obtained

Compiler for Machine code for

language L1 P1 that will run on Executed on
on computer B computer B computer B

Illustrating the machine independence characteristic of a

high-level language. Separate compilers are required for the
same language on different computers

Ref Page 217 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 22/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Syntax Errors

In addition to doing translation job, compilers also

automatically detect and indicate syntax errors

Syntax errors are typically of following types:

 Illegal characters
 Illegal combination of characters
 Improper sequencing of instructions in a program
 Use of undefined variable names

Note : A compiler cannot detect logic errors in a program

Ref Page 219 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 23/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

The Process of Removing Syntax Errors

From A Source Program
START

Edit
source program
Source program
Compile
source program

Syntax
errors No Generate
detected? object program

Yes Object program

Generate list of coded STOP
error messages

Ref Page 219 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 24/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Linker

 For a large software, storing all the lines of program

code in a single source file will be:

– Difficult to work with

– Difficult to deploy multiple programmers to
concurrently work towards its development
– Any change in the source program would require the
entire source program to be recompiled

 Hence, a modular approach is generally adapted to

develop large software where the software consists of
multiple source program files
 No need to write programs for some modules as it might
be available in library offering the same functionality
(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 219 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 25/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Linker
(Continued from previous slide..)

 Each source program file can be independently

modified and compiled to create a corresponding
object program file
 Linker program (software) is used to properly
combine all the object program files (modules)
 Creates the final executable program (load module)

Ref Page 220 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 26/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Interpreter

 Interpreter is a high-level language translator

 Takes one statement of a high-level language
program, translates it into machine language
instructions
 Immediately executes the resulting machine language
instructions
 Compiler simply translates the entire source program
into an object program and is not involved in its
execution

Ref Page 220 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 27/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Role of an Interpreter

Interpreter
(translates and
High-level language executes
program Input Output Result of
statement-by- program
(Source Program) statement) execution

Ref Page 220 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 28/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Intermediate Language Compiler &

Interpreter

 New type of compiler and interpreter combines the

speed, ease, and control of both compiler and
interpreter
 Compiler first compiles the source program to an
intermediate object program
 Intermediate object program is not a machine
language code but written in an intermediate
language that is virtually machine independent
 Interpreter takes intermediate object program,
converts it into machine language program and
executes it

Ref Page 221 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 29/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Benefits of Intermediate Language

Compiler & Interpreter

 Intermediate object program is in compiled form and thus is

not original source code, so safer and easier to share
 Intermediate object program is based on a standard
Intermediate Definition Language (IDL)
 Interpreter can be written for any computer architecture and
operating system providing virtual machine environment to the
executing program
 Newer Interpreter compiles intermediate program, in memory,
into final host machine language program and executes it
 This technique is called Just-In-Time (JIT) Compilation

Ref Page 221 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 30/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Advantages of High-Level Languages

 Machine independent
 Easier to learn and use
 Fewer errors during program development
 Lower program preparation cost
 Better documentation
 Easier to maintain

Ref Page 222 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 31/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Limitations of High-Level Languages

 Lower execution efficiency

 Less flexibility to control the computer’s CPU, memory
and registers

Ref Page 222 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 32/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Object-Oriented Programming Languages

 Programming languages are used for simulating real-

world problems on computers
 Much of the real world is made up of objects
 Essence of OOP is to solve a problem by:
 Identifying the real-world objects of the problem
 Identifying processing required of them
 Creating simulations of objects, processes, and their
communications

Ref Page 223 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 33/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

FORTRAN

 Stands for FORmula TRANslation

 Originally developed by John Backus and his team at
IBM followed by several revisions
 Standardized by ANSI as FORTRAN-77 and FORTRAN-90
 Designed for solving scientific & engineering problems
 Oriented towards solving problems of a mathematical
nature
 Popular language amongst scientists and engineers

Ref Page 223 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 34/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample FORTRAN Program

C FORTRAN PROGRAM TO COMPUTE

C THE SUM OF 10 NUMBERS
SUM = 0
DO 50 I = 1, 10
READ (5, 10) N
SUM = SUM + N
50 CONTINUE
WRITE (6, 20) SUM
10 FORMAT (F6.2)
20 FORMAT (1X, ’THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS = ’,
F10.2)
STOP
END

Ref Page 224 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 35/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

COBOL

 Stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language

 Originally developed started under Grace Hopper
followed by COnference on DAta SYstems Languages
(CODASYL)
 Standardized by ANSI as COBOL-74, COBOL-85, and
COBOL-2002
 Designed for programming business data processing
applications
 Designed to have the appearance and structure of a
business report written in English, hence often referred
to as a self-documenting language

Ref Page 224 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 36/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample COBOL Program

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
PROGRAM_ID. SUMUP.
AUTHOR. P K SINHA.
* THIS PROGRAM COMPUTES AND PRINTS
* THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS.

ENVIROMENT DIVISION.
CONFIGURATION SECTION.
SOURCE_COMPUTER. BURROUGHS_6700.
OBJECT_COMPUTER. BURROUGHS_6700.
INPUT_OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE_CONTROL.
SELECT DATA_FILE ASSIGN TO DISK.
SELECT OUTPUT_FILE ASSIGN TO PRINTER.

DATA DIVISION.
FILE SECTION.

(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 226 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 37/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample COBOL Program

(Continued from previous slide..)

FD DATA_FILE
RECORD CONTAINS 80 CHARACTERS
LABEL RECORD IS OMITTED
DATA RECORD IS INPUT_DATA_
RECORD.

01 INPUT_DATA_RECORD.
05 NPICTURE 9(6)V99.
05 FILLER PICTURE X(72).

FD OUTPUT_FILE
RECORD CONTAINS 132 CHARACTERS
LABEL RECORD IS OMITTED
DATA RECORD IS OUTPUT_RECORD.

(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 226 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 38/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample COBOL Program

(Continued from previous slide..)

01 OUTPUT_RECORD.
05 FILLER PICTURE X.
05TITLE PICTURE X(25).
05 SUM PICTURE 9(10)V99.
05 FILLER PICTURE X(94).
WORKING_STORAGE SECTION.
77MESSAGE PICTURE X(25)
VALUE IS “THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS=”.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.
OPEN_FILES.
OPEN INPUT DATA_FILE.
OPEN OUTPUT OUTPUT_FILE.

INITIALIZATION.
MOVE SPACES TO OUTPUT_RECORD.
MOVE ZERO TO SUM.

(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 226 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 39/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample COBOL Program

(Continued from previous slide..)

PROCESS_LOOP.
READ DATA_FILE AT END GO TO
PRINT_PARA.
ADD N TO SUM.
GO TO PROCESS_LOOP.

PRINT_PARA.
MOVE MESSAGE TO TITLE.
WRITE OUTPUT_RECORD.

END_OF_JOB.
CLOSE DATA_FILE.
CLOSE OUTPUT_FILE.
STOP RUN.

Ref Page 226 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 40/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

BASIC

 Stands for Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction

Code
 Developed by Professor John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz
at Darmouth College in the United States
 Standardized by ANSI as BASIC-78
 Designed to be an interactive language and to use an
interpreter instead of a compiler
 Simple to implement, learn and use language. Hence, it
is a widely used language on personal computers
 Flexible and reasonably powerful language and can be
used for both business and scientific applications

Ref Page 227 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 41/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample BASIC Program

5 REM PROGRAM TO COMPUTE

6 REM THE SUM OF 10 NUMBERS
10 LET S = 0
20 FOR I = 1 TO 10
30 READ N
40 LET S = S + N
50 NEXT I
60 PRINT “THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS = ”; S
70 DATA 4, 20, 15, 32, 48
80 DATA 12, 3, 9, 14, 44
90 END;

Ref Page 227 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 42/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Pascal

 Named after the famous seventeenth-century French

mathematician Blaise Pascal
 Developed by Professor Nicklaus Wirth of Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich
 Encourages programmers to write well-structured, modular
programs, instills good program practices
 Recognized as an educational language and is used to teach
programming to beginners
 Suitable for both scientific & business applications
 Has features to manipulate numbers, vectors, matrices,
strings, sets, records, files, and lists

Ref Page 228 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 43/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample Pascal Program

PROGRAM SUMNUMS (INPUT, OUTPUT);
(* PROGRAM TO COMPUTE THE SUM OF 10 NUMBERS *)

(* DECLARATION OF VARIABLES *)
VAR SUM, N : REAL;
VAR I : INTEGER;

(* MAIN PROGRAM LOGIC STARTS HERE *)

BEGIN
SUM := 0;
FOR I := 1 TO 10 DO
BEGIN
READ (N);
SUM := SUM + N;
END;
WRITELN (‘THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS=’, SUM);
END;

Ref Page 228 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 44/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

 Developed in 1972 at AT&T’s Bell laboratories, USA

by Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan
 Standardized by ANSI and ISO as C89, C90, C99
 High-level programming languages (mainly machine
independence) with the efficiency of an assembly
language
 Language of choice of programmers for portable
systems software and commercial software packages
like OS, compiler, spreadsheet, word processor, and
database management systems

Ref Page 229 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 45/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

A Sample C Program

/* PROGRAM TO COMPUTE THE SUM OF 10 NUMBERS */

/* Directives to include standard library and header */
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
/* Main function starts here */
void main ( )
{
/* Declaration of variables */
float Sum = 0.0, N = 0.0;
int Count = 0;
for (Count = 0; Count < 10; Count++)
{
printf(“\nGive a number:”);
scanf(“%f”, N);
Sum += N;
}
printf(“THE SUM OF GIVEN NUMBERS = %f”, &Sum);
}

Ref Page 230 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 46/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

C++

 Named C++ as ++ is increment operator and C

language is incremented to its next level with C++
 Developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs in the
early 1980s
 Contains all elements of the basic C language
 Expanded to include numerous object-oriented
programming features
 Provides a collection of predefined classes, along with
the capability of user-defined classes

Ref Page 229 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 47/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Java

 Development started at Sun Microsystems in 1991 by a

team led by James Gosling
 Developed to be similar to C++ with fewer features to
keep it simple and easy to use
 Compiled code is machine-independent and developed
programs are simple to implement and use
 Uses just-in-time compilation
 Used in embedded systems such as hand-held devices,
telephones and VCRs
 Comes in two variants – Java Runtime Engine (JRE) and
Java Software Development Kit (SDK)

Ref Page 229 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 48/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

C# (C Sharp)

 Object-oriented programming language developed by

Anders Hejlsberg and released by Microsoft as part of
Microsoft’s .NET technology initiative
 Standardized by ECMA and ISO
 Syntactically and semantically very close to C++ and
adopts various object-oriented features from both C++
and Java
 Compilers target the Common Language Infrastructure
(CLI) implemented by Common Language Runtime (CLR)
of .NET Framework
 CLR provides important services such as, memory
management, exception handling, and security

Ref Page 232 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 49/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

RPG

 Stands for Report Program Generator

 Developed by IBM to meet customer requests for an
easy and economic mechanism for producing reports
 Designed to generate the output reports resulting from
the processing of common business applications
 Easier to learn and use as compared to COBOL
 Programmers use very detailed coding sheets to write
specifications about input, calculations, and output

Ref Page 232 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 50/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

LISP

 Stands for LISt Processing

 Developed in 1959 by John McCarthy of MIT
 Designed to have features for manipulating non-
numeric data, such as symbols and strings of text
 Due to its powerful list processing capability, it is
extensively used in the areas of pattern recognition,
artificial intelligence, and for simulation of games
 Functional programming language in which all
computation is accomplished by applying functions to
arguments

Ref Page 232 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 51/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

SNOBOL

 Stands for StriNg Oriented symBOlic Language

 Used for non-numeric applications
 Powerful string manipulation features
 Widely used for applications in the area of text
processing

Ref Page 233 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 52/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha
Characteristics of a Good
Programming Language

 Simplicity
 Naturalness
 Abstraction
 Efficiency
 Structured Programming Support
 Compactness
 Locality
 Extensibility
 Suitability to its environment

Ref Page 233 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 53/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Factors for Selecting a Language for

Coding an Application

 Nature of the application

 Familiarity with the language
 Ease of learning the language
 Availability of program development tools
 Execution efficiency
 Features of a good programming language

Ref Page 234 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 54/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Subprogram

 Program written in a manner that it can be brought into

use in other programs and used whenever needed
without rewriting
 Also referred to as subroutine, sub-procedure, or function
 Subprogram call statement contains the name of the
subprogram followed by a list of parameters enclosed
within a pair of parentheses
 Intrinsic subprograms (also called built-in-functions) are
those provided with the programming language
 Programmer-written subprograms are written and used
as and when they are needed

Ref Page 235 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 55/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Structure of a Subprogram

Subprogram name Parameter

Subprogram header
sqrt (x)

Set of instructions that perform Subprogram body

the intended task

Ref Page 235 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 56/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Flow of Control in Case of Subprogram Calls

subprogram header 2 1
subprogram call statement
3
6 4 next statement
subprogram body 7
5

subprogram call statement

8 next statement
9

A subprogram Flow of control A program that calls

the subprogram twice

Ref Page 235 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 57/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Key Words/Phrases

 Assembler  Just-in-time compilation

 Assembly language  Language processor
 BASIC  Linker
 Built-in function  LISP
 C  Load module
 C++  Logic error
 C#  Low-level language
 COBOL  Machine language
 Coding  Macro instructions
 Compiler  Object program
 Computer language  Object-oriented programming
 FORTRAN  Opcode
 Function  Operand
 High-level language  Pascal
 HotJava Interpreter  Programmer
 Intrinsic subprogram  Programming
 Intermediate compiler and  Programming language
Interpreter  Pseudo instruction
 Java  RPG
 Self-documenting language

(Continued on next slide)

Ref Page 235 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 58/59

 Computer Fundamentals: Pradeep K. Sinha & Priti Sinha

Key Words/Phrases
(Continued from previous slide..)

 SNOBOL
 Source program
 Sub-procedure
 Subprogram
 Subroutine
 Symbolic language
 Syntax error
 Syntax rules
 Written subprograms

Ref Page 235 Chapter 12: Computer Languages Slide 59/59