University of California, Irvine

ICS 141

Chapter 1 Check your understanding

1)What is the difference between machine language and assembly language?

2. In what way(s) are high-level languages an improvement on assembly language? Are there circumstances in which it still make sense to program in assembler?
3. Why are there so many programming languages?
4. What makes a programming language successful?
5. Name three languages in each of the following categories: von Neumann, functional, object-oriented. Name two logic languages. Name two widely used concurrent languages.
6. What distinguishes declarative languages from imperative languages?
7. What organization spearheaded the development of Ada?
8. What is generally considered the first high-level programming language?
9. What was the first functional language?
10. Why aren’t concurrent languages listed as a separate family in Figure 1.1?
11. Explain the distinction between interpretation and compilation. What are the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches?
12. Is Java compiled or interpreted (or both)? How do you know?
13. What is the difference between a compiler and a preprocessor?
14. What was the intermediate form employed by the original AT&T C++ compiler?

15. What is P-code?
16. What is bootstrapping?
17. What is a just-in-time compiler?
18. Name two languages in which a program can write new pieces of itself “on the fly.”
19. Briefly describe three “unconventional” compilers—compilers whose purpose is not to prepare a high-level program for execution on a general- purpose processor.
20. List six kinds of tools that commonly support the work of a compiler within a larger programming environment.
21. Explain how an integrated development environment (IDE) differs from a collection of command-line tools.

22. List the principal phases of compilation, and describe the work performed by each.

23. List the phases that are also executed as part of interpretation.

24. Describe the form in which a program is passed from the scanner to the parser; from the parser to the semantic analyzer; from the semantic analyzer to the intermediate code generator.

25. What distinguishes the front end of a compiler from the back end?

26. What is the difference between a phase and a pass of compilation?Under what circumstances does it make sense for a compiler to have multiple passes?

27. What is the purpose of the compiler’s symbol table?
28. What is the difference between static and dynamic semantics?
29. On modern machines, do assembly language programmers still tend to write better code than a good compiler can? Why or why not?