Review Questions

6. What hardware capability that first appeared in the IBM

704 computer strongly affected the evolution of
programming languages? Explain why.

-Floating-point hardware.Because from 1940-1950 lack of
floating point hardware in which the operations really
consuming time in the process.Because the ability of
processor was spent in software floating point processing
and the simulation of index were relatively insignificant.

7. In what year was the Fortran design project begun?

-In 1954 the IBM 704 introduced the development of
Fortran.

8. What was the primary application area of computers at
the time Fortran was designed?

-It was designed mostly for mathematical operations
consist of algebraic translation,arithmetic expressions like
sine and logarithm and included arrays.

9. What was the source of all of the control flow
statements of Fortran I?

-It based on 704 instructions.

10. What was the most significant feature added to Fortran
I to get Fortran II?
-The independent compilation of subroutines.


PROBLEM SET

6. Make an educated guess as to the most common
syntax error in LISP programs.

-The incorrect placement make the most common syntax
error.

7. LISP began as a pure functional language but gradually
acquired more and more imperative features. Why?

-Because LISP its used to solve the real problems that
related to AI.

8. Describe in detail the three most important reasons, in
your opinion,
why ALGOL 60 did not become a very widely used
language.

-The features of ALGOL 60 too flexible.
-Hard to understand
-The implementation still inefficient.

9. Why, in your opinion, did COBOL allow long identifiers
when Fortran and ALGOL did not?

-Because it was used for Business application to
computerize business records.

10. Outline the major motivation of IBM in developing PL/I.

- the early 1960s, the
users of computers in industry had settled into two
separate and different that are scientific and business. The
two widely separated computer user groups were moving
toward each other in ways that were thought certain to
create problems. These perceptions naturally led to the
concept of designing a single universal
computer that would be capable of doing both floating-
point and decimal arithmetic, and therefore both scientific
and business applications. Born the concept of the IBM
System/360 line of computers the idea of a programming
language that could be used for both business
and scientific applications. The new language was
to replace Fortran, COBOL, LISP, and the systems
applications of assembly
language.
8.