Query languages

Query languages are used specifically within the realm of databases. These languages are designed to instruct the computer to retrieve and manipulate database information and can be used to develop specific applications based on databases, such as database publishing and project management.

Natural languages

The fifth and final generation of programming languages does not involve the generation of any code. These natural languages use the normal grammar of the spoken language to create programs. Some natural programming languages include Intellect, Broker, and Explorer.

Task 2. Answer the questions to the text.

1. How are programming languages classified? 2. What are low-level languages? 3. What are high-level languages? 4. What does programming with a machine language require? 5. What are specific features of the second-generation programming languages? 6. Why are procedural languages called high level languages? 7. What do compilers and interpreters do? 8. Can you name any procedural language? 9. What languages are included in the group of the fourth-generation languages? 10. Is it possible to use the spoken language to create programs? 11. When are query languages used? 12. What languages do not involve the generation of any code?

Task 3. Give the equivalents for the terms.

1. авторська система; 2. виконуваний файл; 3. процедурні мови; 4. буквено-цифрові символи; 5. програма асемблер; 6. структурне програмування; 7. набір синтаксичних правил; 8. прикладна програма; 9. мова запитів; 10. двійковий код; 11. вихідна програма, програма на мові високого рівня; 12. мова програмування сценаріїв.

Task 4. Mark the following as True or False.

1. The third-generation programming languages are machine languages that use binary codes of ones and zeroes to control the activities of the computer. 2. A procedural language is a type of a high-level programming language that requires each computer instruction to be listed and carried out in sequence. 3. The second-generation programming languages require less specificity in terms of the order in which the computer instructions are carried out. They are referred to as nonprocedural languages. 4. Machine languages, assembly languages are known as low-level languages because they interact directly with the computer’s hardware, using machine-oriented codes rather than English-like commands. 5. High-level programming languages use an English-like approach that is easier to use than machine or assembly languages. 6. Programs created with these languages can be used on more than one type of computer with little modification.

Task 5. Fill in the blanks with the words from the box.

to provide, to operate, to guide, to initiate, to evolve, to communicate, to know, to establish, to tell, to type

A programming language is, in many ways much like the languages we use ... (1) with each other. A programming language ... (2) a special set of rules and a vocabulary that have to do with a computer’s operation. Before communication with a computer can be ... (3), the rules and specialised vocabulary of the programming language must ... (4) to both the computer programmer and the computer itself. A programming language has words, symbols and rules of grammar (known as the syntax of the language). A computer programmer, ... (5) within the structure of these rules, develops an instruction ... (6) the computer’s operation. The resulting set of instructions is the computer program. Often these instructions ... (7) the computer what to do when the user of the program ... (8) some kind of action (when, for example, the user ... (9) in characters from the computer’s keyboard). Over the years, computer programming methods ... (10) through the development of successive ‘generations’ of programming languages, with each new generation bringing new functionality and ease-to-use.

Task 6. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian.

1. It is necessary that machine languages should be designed for a specific type of computer processor. 2. The programmer insisted that each instruction of the source program should be translated to a machine language. 3. I wish the computer program based on these fourth-generation methods required fewer statements. 4. It is time a computer user could write statements that are very much like a normal human language. 5. If I used this high-level programming language, I would develop the report based on the information stored in the computer. 6. If the programmer should use this natural language approach, tell him he doesn’t have to learn special rules of statement entry. 7. If he had used a database query language, the requests would have been phrased as normal human-language statements. 8. If it were not for your help, I shouldn’t be able to carry out the task in time. 9. But for the slow execution of the program, this instruction-by-instruction method would have become appropriate to find errors and to fix them immediately. 10. If PC users needed application programs created for farmers and mechanics, for scientists and teachers, they would buy commercial software to meet their individual needs. 11. I wish I had known FORTRAN to apply it for scientific application. 12. Had I used the Internet, I would have got the required information earlier.

Task 7. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Існує безліч мов програмування. 2. Високорівневі мови програмування в чомусь нагадують людські мови. 3. Вони розроблені так, щоб людині якомога легше було створювати на них програми і читати їх. 4. Інструкції високорівневої мови програмування набагато складніші, ніж ті прості інструкції, які може виконувати центральний процесор комп'ютера. 5. Мови, близькі за структурою до мови інструкцій процесора, називаються мовами низького рівня.

6. Вони орієнтовані на конкретні комп'ютери, тому набори їх інструкцій для різних комп'ютерів різні. 7. Хоча мова асемблера дуже близька до мови, яку розуміє комп'ютер, створені на ньому програми перед виконанням вимагають деякого простого перетворення. 8. Щоб комп'ютер міг виконати асемблерну інструкцію, її потрібно перекласти в послідовність нулів і одиниць. 9. Інструкції мови асемблера та їх еквіваленти, що складаються з нулів і одиниць, для різних комп'ютерів різні. 10. Про зрозумілих комп'ютеру програмах у формі послідовностей нулів і одиниць кажуть, що вони написані на машинній мові (машинному коді). 11. Нам принципово важливо знайти відмінність між машинною мовою та мовами високого рівня, подібними С ++. 12. Полягає вона в тому, що програма мовою високого рівня повинна бути перетворена (трансльована) в машинний код, і тільки тоді комп'ютер зможе її зрозуміти і виконати.

Task 8. Work in groups of 3 (A, B, C). Read your text extract and answer the following questions:

1) What is this programming language designed for?

2) What are its advantages/disadvantages in comparison with the other programming languages?