2.5 Translators and facilities of languages

2.5 Translators and facilities of languages

1. Different Programming Languages

   • All apps and programs are written in programming languages.
   • There are hundreds of languages but they are split into 2 main types.
     • Low Level
       • Very close to pure machine code and hard to use
       • Examples:
         • Assembly Language
         • Pure Machine Code (Binary)
       • Not very commonly used because it's hard to write and understand
       • Used to write programs that relate to specific architecture and hardware of a particular type of computer.
       • Requires less memory.
       • Can be executed faster.
       • Total control over code
     • High Level
       • More like normal English, and easier for humans to use.
       • Examples:
         • Python
         • Java
         • PHP
         • C++
         • Pascal
       • No particular knowledge of the hardware is needed. This means it's portable and not tied to a particular type of chip.
       • Use a high level of abstraction, which meanscomplicated tasks can be represented as a single instruction, as oppose to many lines of code.

2. Translators

   • There are three main ways of doing this:
     • Compiling
       • Where a program called a compiler translates source code into a standalone executable file
     • Interpreting
       • Where the source code is converted into machine code and executed at the same time, line-by-line
     • Assembling
       • This is the process of compiling assembly code using a program called an assembler.
   • Computers can only understand machine code, written in binary, so in order to get it from the source code the programmers write, the text needs to be translated.

3. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

   • IDEs typically contain:
     • Code Editors
     • Translator
     • Syntax Checks
     • Debugging tools
     • Automation Tools
     • Run-time Environments
   • IDEs are pieces of software that provide the basic tools that developers need to write and test programs.
   • IDEs vs Text Editors
     • IDEs
       • Debugs and syntax checks itself
       • Pretty Printing
     • Text Editors
       • Rich text editing
     • Both
       • You can write code in both