Английский язык в сфере компьютерных и телекоммуникационных технологий (стр. 2 )

The rapid growth of the Internet in the mid-1990's was the next major historic event in  programming opening up a radically new platform for computer systems, the Internet created an opportunity for new languages to be adopted. In particular, the Java programming language (1991) rose to popularity because of its early integration with the Netscape Navigatorweb browser, and various scripting languages achieved widespread use in developing customized applications for web servers.

Programming language evolution continues, in both industry and research. There are some current directions:

mechanisms for adding security and reliability verification to the language: extended static checking, information flow control, static thread safety; alternative mechanisms for modularity: mixings, delegates, aspects; component-oriented software development; increased emphasis on distribution and mobility; integration with databases, including XML and relational databases.

EXERCISE 2

Translate the text using the following words and expressions. Learn these words.

to predate - предшествовать

a punch card – перфокарта

toencode – шифровать, кодировать

censusdata – цензовыеданные, данныепереписи

albeit – хотя

tointerleave – прослаивать, располагать слоями

error-prone - подверженный ошибкам

assemblylanguage – язык ассемблера

milestone – ключевое событие, веха

polymorphictypesystem – полиморфемная система

tospawn – породить, вызвать

tedious – нудный утомительный

bewilder – сбивать с толку, приводить в замешательство

consolidation – консолидация, объединение, упрочение

towed – совмещать, сочетать

EXERCISE3

What do the following numbers refer to?

1940-s, 60, C-10, the late 50-s, three, fifth generation, 1991.

EXERCISE4

Read the text again. Insert the correct answer.

1) The first programming languages…

…appeared with the development of modern computers/ predate the modern computer/ were created after the World War II.

2)For efficient performance of Jacquard looms and Charles Babbage's Difference Engine commands were given…

…on the punch cards/ in a formulaic way/as letters and numbers.

3)In the 1950s the first three modern programming languages were designed: …

Algol, Simula, Smalltalk/Haskell, Java, Python/ Fortran, Lisp, Cobol.

4) Most of the major language paradigms now in use were invented in…

…1990-2000/ the late 60-s to the late 70-s/ at the dawn of the computing era.

5) Ada, a systems programming language was intended for use…

… by defense contractors/ for secret negotiations/ in Japan.

6) In the mid-1990's the next major historic event in  programming languages was…

…the invention of wireless technologies/ space exploration/ growth of Internet.

EXERCISE5

Discuss the following aspects.

1.Prehistory of the programming languages;

2. 1940-s - development of electrically powered computers;

3. The Algol 60 Report – another milestone;

4. Major flowering of programming languages;

5. “Years of consolidation”

6. The rapid growth of Internet.

EXERCISE 6

Here is a summary of the text ‘History of programming languages’. Put one word only into each gap.

Like many "firsts" in history, the first modern programming language is hard a)______. The first programming languages were b)______ on punch cards.

In the c)______ electrically powered computers were created.

The limited speed and memory capacity d)_____programmers to write hand tuned assembly language programs.

It was soon discovered that programming in assembly language required a great e)_____of intellectual effort and was error-prone.

In the 1950sFORTRAN, LISP, and Cobol whose f)_____are still in widespread use today were designed.

The period from the late 1960s to the late 1970s brought a g)_____flowering of programming languages.

Most of the major language h)______now in use were invented in this period.

The 1980s were years of i)_____consolidation.

The United States government standardized Ada, a systems programming language intended j)____use by defense contractors.

In Japan k)_____elsewhere, vast sums were spent investigating so-called "fifth generation" languages that incorporated logic programming constructs.

l)_____, one important new trend in language design was an increased focus on programming for large-scale systems through the use of modules, or large-scale organizational units of code.

The rapid growth m)_____the Internet in the mid-1990's was the next major historic event in  programming languages.

By opening n)_____a radically new platform for computer systems, the Internet created an opportunity for new languages o)_____be adopted.

  Programming p)_____evolution continues, in both industry and research.

Text II

Programming Languages

EXERCISE 1

Read and translate the text using words after the text.

A programming language is an artificial language that can be used to control the behaviour of a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages, like human languages, are defined through the use of syntactic and semantic rules, to determine structure and meaning respectively.

Programming languages are used to facilitate communication about the task of organizing and manipulating information, and to express algorithmsprecisely. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, and new ones are created every year.

There is no precise definition, but traits often consider important requirements and objectives of the language to be characterized as a programming language. Let’s speak about their function, target, construct and expressive power.

Function: A programming language is a language used to write computer programs, which instruct a computer to perform some kind of computation, and/or organize the flow of control between external devices (such as a printer, a robot, or any peripheral).

Target: Programming languages differ from natural languages in that natural languages are only used for interaction between people, while programming languages also allow humans to communicate instructions to machines. In some cases, programming languages are used by one program or machine to program another; PostScript source code, for example, is frequently generated programmatically to control a computer printer or display.

Constructs: Programming languages may contain constructs for defining and manipulating data structures or for controlling the flow of execution.

Expressive power: The theory of computation classifies languages by the computations they can express. All Turing complete languages can implement the same set of algorithms. ANSI/ISO SQL and Charity are examples of languages that are not Turing complete yet often called programming languages.

Non-computational languages, such as markup languages like HTML or formal grammars like BNF, are usually not considered programming languages. It is a usual approach to embed a programming language into the non-computational (host) language, to express templates for the host language.

What is the purpose of programming languages? A prominent purpose of programming languages is to provide instructions to a computer. As such, programming languages differ from most other forms of human expression in that they require a greater degree of precision and completeness. When using a natural language to communicate with other people, human authors and speakers can be ambiguous and make small errors, and still expect their intent to be understood. However, computers do exactly what they are told to do, and cannot understand the code the programmer "intended" to write. The combination of the language definition, the program, and the program's inputs must fully specify the external behavior that occurs when the program is executed.

All the programming languages can be divided into high-level languages and machine-level languages. High-level languages such as BASIC or FORTRAN are machine independent because any program written in this language can easily be executed by different computer system, they are easy to learn and produce fast results. On the other hand, machine-level languages such as assembly languages require that computer and peripheral  devices should correspond. That is why machine-level languages are machine-dependant languages. But system programmers use machine-level languages for writing programs that must be as fast and efficient as possible.

EXERCISE 2

Words and word combinations to be learnt:

Trait – характерная черта, особенность

behaviour – поведение, режим

precisely – точно

construct - логическая структура, структурный компонент

template – образец, шаблон

ambiguous – неопределенный, неоднозначный

fromscratch – с нуля

toembed – вводить, внедрять

hostlanguage – базисный, базовый язык

EXERCISE 3

Read the text and discuss these questions:

How can we define programming languages? Why do we need programming languages? Is the function of the programming languages so important? How can we explain the difference between the natural languages and programming languages? What languages aren’t usually considered programming languages? Why should programming languages possess a greater degree of preciseness and completeness than human languages? What is the difference between high-level languages and machine-level languages?

EXERCISE 4

Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones with the right information and discuss your answers with a partner.

1        .A programming language is a special program that helps the computer to facilitate the communication with peripheral devices.

2        .Human languages have something in common with programming languages: they have the same rules to determine structure and meaning.

3.        Many years ago, at the dawn of computer era, there appeared programming languages which are widely used today.