Nova Southeastern University
College of Engineering and Computing
Winter 2016 - Master level Course - Term Code: 201630– CRN 31377
Dates: 16 weeks: 01/04/16-04/24/16 - On-Campus
CISC 610 Programming Languages (3 Credits)
Please refer to Calendar and Syllabus for due date
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Midterm in one of the following file formats: ASCII, MS Word, or PDF
Note: More is better, to a point, don’t wander in your explanations, but supply enough detail to show you understand the question.
1) All languages have specific design criteria, a goal in mind. .
A. Give two languages that are in direct conflict with each.
B. Provide examples of these conflicts as either programming examples (features allowed or not allowed) or program model, (environment).
C. Compare and contrast the terms readability and writeability regarding your selected two languages, and explain why you believe this is so.
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2) As languages evolve, describe some of the restrictions that you believe are appropriate for changes in programming languages. Describe, in your opinion, the goal of program language evolution should be.
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3) In chapter 3 and 4, we discussed syntax and semantics, what is the difference between context-sensitive, context-free and a regular expression? What is the scope? (where are they applied), How can the use of these grammars produce a higher level of program reliability? Does this higher level of reliability encourage complexity, explain how with examples?
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4) Describe the different between recursive-descent parsing and Bottom up parsing, Use an example to show how these two types of parsing work. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of each and explain the domain (problem types) that they are applied to.
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5) Explain why compilers use parsing algorithms that work on only a subset of all grammars.
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6) Make an argument, which type of parser is more powerful, bottom-up or top down, use as may examples as possible to support your side.
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7) What is a variable? What are the semantics (attributes of a variable)? Why don’t functional languages have them? (make sure you explain which functional language you are addressing). When is the dynamic binding done to a variables attributes
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8) What are implicit heap-dynamic variables, when, how and why are they used, when should they not be used.
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9) What is dynamic scoping, when and where it is applied, what are the performance impacts of using dynamic scoping and how can these be minimized.
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10 ) What are the advantages and disadvantages of user-defined ordinal types as data types? What are the advantages and disadvantages to an associative array? When should you not use an associative array, Explain the relationship between a Hash table and an associative array.
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11 ) How does the Heap deal with variable-Size Cells?
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12 ) What languages support negative subscripts?
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13) Define union, free union and discriminated union?
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14) Give a programming language that supports strongly typed and enumerations, with an example.
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15) Make an argument that narrowing or widening conversions are never safe or are safe, support your claim with examples.
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