Module 1: Introduction

Dr. Jyoti Deshmukh

Plan for Today
□
Overview of different programming
paradigms
Imperative
Logical
Functional
Object Oriented Programming

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4
The Role of Programming
□
Programming: Essential form of
expression for a computer
scientist
”The limits of my language mean the limits of
my world.” (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
□
Programming languages determine
what algorithms and ideas you
can express

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Goal of this Lecture
Understand how programming
languages (PLs) work
□
How are languages defined?
□
What language design choices
exist?
□
How are languages implemented?

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Why Learn About PLs?
Enables you to
□
choose right PL for a specific purpose
□
choose among alternative ways to express things
□
make best use of tools (e.g., debuggers, IDEs,
analysis tools)
□
understand obscure language features
□
simulate useful features in languages that lack
them

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Isn’t Knowing {Pick a PL} Enough?

□
Complex systems: Built in various
languages
E.g., Facebook: Wild mix of languages
covering various language paradigms
□
New languages arrive regularly (and
old ones fade away)

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History: From Bits ...
First electronic computers: Programmed
in machine language
□
Sequence of bits
□
Example: Calculate greatest common divisor

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History: From Bits ...
First electronic computers: Programmed
in machine language
□
Sequence of bits
□
Example: Calculate greatest common divisor

Machine time more valuable than

developer time
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... over Assembly ...
Human-readable abbreviations for
machine language instructions
□
Less error-prone, but still very machine-
centered
□
Each new machine: Different assembly
language
□
Developer thinks in terms of low-level
operations

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... over Assembly ...
Greatest common divisor in x86:
... to High-level Languages

□
1950s: First high-level languages
Fortran, Lisp, Algol
□
Developer thinks in mathematical and
logical abstractions

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... to High-level Languages
Greatest common divisor in Fortran:
subroutine gcd_iter(value, u,
v) integer, intent(out) ::
value integer,
intent(inout) :: u, v
integer :: t

do while( v /= 0 )
t = u
u = v
v = mod(t,
v) enddo
value =
abs(u)
end subroutine
gcd_iter
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Today: 1000s of Languages
□
New languages gain traction regularly
□
Some long-term survivors
Fortran, Cobol, C

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Today: 1000s of Languages
□
New languages gain traction regularly
□
Some long-term survivors
Fortran, Cobol, C

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What Makes a PL Successful?

□
Expressive power
But: All PLs are Turing-complete
□
Ease of learning (e.g., Basic, Python)
□
Open source
□
Standardization: Ensure portability
across platforms
□
Excellent compilers
□
Economics
E.g., C# by Microsoft, Objective-C by
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Apple
 PL Spectrum
□
Broad classification
Declarative (”what to
compute”):
E.g., Haskell, SQL, spreadsheets
Imperative (”how to compute it”):
E.g., C, Java, Perl
□
Various PL paradigms: Sequential
Statically typed Distributed-
Functional Shared-memory memory
Dynamically typed parallel
parallel
Logic Dataflow
□
Most languages combine multiple
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paradigms
Example: Imperative PL
C implementation for GCD:
int gcd(int a, int
b) { while (a !=
b) {
if (a > b) a = a -
b; else b = b - a;
}
return a;
}

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Example: Imperative PL
C implementation for GCD:
int gcd(int a, int Statements that
b) { while (a != influence subsequent
b) {
statements
if (a > b) a = a -
b; else b = b - a;
}
return a;
}

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Example: Imperative PL
C implementation for GCD:
int gcd(int a, int Statements that
b) { while (a != influence subsequent
b) {
statements
if (a > b) a = a -
b; else b = b - a;
}
} return a;
Assignments with
side effect of
changing memory

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Example: Functional PL
OCaml implementation of GCD
let rec gcd a b
= if a = b
then a
else if a > b then gcd b (a
- b) else gcd a (b - a)

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Example: Functional PL
OCaml implementation of GCD
Recursive function
let rec gcd a b
= if a = b then with two arguments
a
else if a > b then gcd b (a
- b) else gcd a (b - a)

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Example: Functional PL
OCaml implementation of GCD
Recursive function
let rec gcd a b
= if a = b then with two arguments
a
else if a > b then gcd b (a
- b) else gcd a (b - a)

Focus on mathematical
relationship between
inputs and outputs

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Example: Logic PL
Prolog implementation of GCD
gcd(A,B,G) :- A = B, G = A.
gcd(A,B,G) :- A > B, C is A-B, gcd(C,B,G).
gcd(A,B,G) :- B > A, C is B-A, gcd(C,A,G).

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Example: Logic PL
Prolog implementation of GCD
gcd(A,B,G) :- A = B, G = A.
gcd(A,B,G) :- A > B, C is A-B, gcd(C,B,G).
gcd(A,B,G) :- B > A, C is B-A, gcd(C,A,G).

Facts and rules

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Example: Logic PL
Prolog implementation of GCD
gcd(A,B,G) :- A = B, G = A.
gcd(A,B,G) :- A > B, C is A-B, gcd(C,B,G).
gcd(A,B,G) :- B > A, C is B-A, gcd(C,A,G).

Facts and rules

Focus on logical
relationships
between variables
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Compilation and Interpretation

Different ways of executing a program

□
Pure compilation
□
Pure interpretation
□
Mixing compilation and interpretation

Virtual machines

Just-in-time compilation

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PL Design vs. Implementation

□
Some PLs are easier to compile than
others
□
E.g., runtime code generation
Code to execute: Unknown at compile
time

Hard to compile

Easy to interpret

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Other Tools
□
Linkers
□
Preprocessors
□
Source-to-source compilers

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