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1.1.2.3 Programming - Absolute Basics PDF

The document discusses the key elements that make up any language: an alphabet, a lexicon, syntax, and semantics. It introduces machine language as the simplest set of symbols used to give commands to a computer, but notes that a bridge is needed between machine language and human language. High-level programming languages serve this purpose by using symbols, words and conventions that are readable to humans and allow expressing more complex commands to computers than machine language alone.

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52 views

1.1.2.3 Programming - Absolute Basics PDF

The document discusses the key elements that make up any language: an alphabet, a lexicon, syntax, and semantics. It introduces machine language as the simplest set of symbols used to give commands to a computer, but notes that a bridge is needed between machine language and human language. High-level programming languages serve this purpose by using symbols, words and conventions that are readable to humans and allow expressing more complex commands to computers than machine language alone.

Uploaded by

eka russanty
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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6/28/2019 1.1.2.

3 Programming - absolute basics

    Sandbox (/sandbox)

What makes a language?


We can say that each language (machine or natural, it doesn't matter) consists of the following
elements:

AN ALPHABET
a set of symbols used to build words of a certain language (e.g., the Latin alphabet for English,
the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian, Kanji for Japanese, and so on)

A LEXIS
(aka a dictionary) a set of words the language o ers its users (e.g., the word "computer"
comes from the English language dictionary, while "cmoptrue" doesn't; the word "chat" is
present both in English and French dictionaries, but their meanings are di erent)

A SYNTAX
a set of rules (formal or informal, written or felt intuitively) used to determine if a certain
string of words forms a valid sentence (e.g., "I am a python" is a syntactically correct phrase,
while "I a python am" isn't)

SEMANTICS
a set of rules determining if a certain phrase makes sense (e.g., "I ate a doughnut" makes
sense, but "A doughnut ate me" doesn't)

The IL is, in fact, the alphabet of a machine language. This is the simplest and most primary
set of symbols we can use to give commands to a computer. It's the computer's mother
tongue.

Unfortunately, this tongue is a far cry from a human mother tongue. We all (both computers
and humans) need something else, a common language for computers and humans, or a
bridge between the two di erent worlds.

We need a language in which humans can write their programs and a language that
computers may use to execute the programs, one that is far more complex than machine
language and yet far simpler than natural language.

Such languages are often called high-level programming languages. They are at least
somewhat similar to natural ones in that they use symbols, words and conventions readable
to humans. These languages enable humans to express commands to computers that are
much more complex than those o ered by ILs
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