云南农业大学计算机导论课件Chapter9 Programming Languages.pptVIP

9.1 EVOLUTION To write a program for a computer, you must use a computer language. A computer language is a set of predefined words that are combined into a program according to predefined rules (syntax). Over the years, computer languages have evolved from machine language to natural languages. A time line for computer languages is presented in Figure 9.1. MACHINE LANGUAGES In the earliest days of computers, the only programming languages available were machine languages. Each computer has its own machine language which is made of streams of 0s and 1s. SYMBOLIC LANGUAGES A language that simply mirrored the machine languages using symbols, or mnemonics, to represent the various machine language instructions. Because they using symbols, these languages were known as symbolic languages. A special program called an assembler is used to translate symbolic code into machine language. Because symbolic languages had to be assembled into machine language, they soon became known as assembly languages. This name is still used today for symbolic languages that closely represent machine language. 9.2 BUILDING A PROGRAM WRITING AND EDITING PROGRAMS The software used to write programs is known as a text editor. A text editor helps you enter, change , and store character data. After you complete a program, you save your file to disk. This file will be input to the compiler; it is known as a source file. COMPILING PROGRAMS The information in a source file stored on disk must be translated into machine language so the computer can understand it. Most high-level languages use a compiler to do this. The compiler is actually two separate programs: the preprocessor and the translator. LINKING PROGRAMS The linker assembles all of these functions, yours and the systems, into your final executable program. 9.3 PROGRAM EXECUTION To execute your program you use an operating system command, such as run, to load your program in