December 1998
SE203: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

QUESTION 4

Total Marks: 20 Marks

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for Question 4

 

Each part of this question requires consideration of the various characteristics of programming languages, and of the four generations of programming languages.

 

(a) Programming languages possess engineering characteristics, which essentially determine the degree to which the programming language will affect the technical development of the program. List and explain three examples of such engineering characteristics.

 

[6]
(b) (i) Assembly language and machine language are considered to be low-level languages. Describe what is meant by the term low-level language. [1]
(ii) Describe one other similarity between assembly language and machine languages. [1]
(iii) One difference between assembly language and machine languages is that assembly language is generally easier to use than machine language, and this is because of the use of mnemonics. Explain briefly the meaning of the word mnemonic. [1]
(iv) Identify one application area in which such low-level languages should be used.

 

[1]
(c) (i) Second generation and third generation languages are frequently called high-level languages. Give one example of a second generation and one example of third generation language. [2]
(ii) Describe in some detail one advantage offered by high-level languages.

 

[2]
(d) (i) Write down one example of a 4th generation language and identify one application area in which the use of 4th generation languages would be ideal. [2]
(ii) Explain why 4th generation languages are considered to be easy to use. [2]
(iii) Describe briefly one disadvantage of 4th generation languages. [2]