History of Programming Languages Quiz

Compiler Development and Early Languages

• Grace Hopper is credited with developing the first compiler.
• The programming language C emerged in the 1970s.
• The Altair 8800, the first personal computer, was introduced by Microcomputer Inc. in the mid-1970s.
• Object-oriented programming (OOP) was introduced in the language Simula.
• High-level languages offer abstraction from hardware, leading to easier programming compared to low-level languages.

Compiler and Memory

• A compiler translates high-level programming code into machine code for execution.
• Assembly language is the closest to hardware, providing a human-readable form of machine code.
• The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is primarily responsible for executing instructions and processing data.
• RAM (Random Access Memory) is volatile memory used for temporary data storage while a computer is in use.

Graphics and Motherboard

• GPU stands for Graphics Processing Unit, which handles rendering images and graphics.
• The motherboard's primary responsibility is to connect and communicate between all computer components.
• A hard disk drive (HDD) serves as the main storage device, retaining data even when the computer is powered off.

Programming Languages and Concepts

• JavaScript was developed by Brendan Eich.
• Fortran is credited as the first high-level programming language and was introduced in the 1950s.
• The programming language COBOL was developed by a committee led by Grace Hopper.
• Guido van Rossum is known as the 'Father of Python.'
• Languages such as C++ and Objective-C emerged in the 1980s.
• Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) provide tools to facilitate software development, including editors, debuggers, and compilers.

Code Execution and Interpretation

• An interpreter directly executes high-level code line by line before translation to machine code.
• Java employs a combination of both compilation and interpretation, known as bytecode execution.
• The primary advantage of interpretation over compilation is flexibility; changes in the code can be tested immediately without the need for recompilation.