Programming languages

Question 1

What is machine code?

Answer 1

• Machine Code is the set of binary instructions, the CPU uses to perform tasks.
• Machine Code is processor dependant.

Question 2

What is assembly language?

Answer 2

A low level programming language which is processor-dependant; each instruction is one machine operation
- It uses mnemonics

Question 3

What are the two types of high level programming languages?

Answer 3

Declarative and Imperative

Question 4

What are Declarative high level languages?

Give some examples.

Answer 4

-They declare the necessary information to produce the required result.

SQL, CSS

Question 5

What are Imperative high level languages?

Answer 5

• The program instructions are executed in an order defined by the programmer.

Question 6

Advantages of using Machine Code and Assembly language over high level languages.

Answer 6

• Executes programs faster than high level
• Doesn’t rely on the compiler to create optimised code
• Low level code is memory efficient due to the lack of abstraction.

Question 7

Disadvantages of using Machine Code and assembly language over high level languages.

Answer 7

• Difficult to learn to program in a low level language
• High level languages have more training support for learning them.
• low level code is harder to debug
• High level code can be self documenting
• Machine code is processor dependant
• low level code is machine dependant

Question 8

What are the 2 advantages of using assembly language over machine code

Answer 8

• It uses mnemonics
• The operand uses a decimal or hexadecimal number
  Both of these things make assembly language easier to read/write for humans

Question 9

Give examples of processes that need to use assembly language?

Answer 9

Embedded systems, interrupt handlers, device drivers

Question 10

What is the relationship between machine code and assembly language?

Answer 10

They have a one to one relationship, one machine code instruction = one assembly language instruction