1. Complete the following sentences using words and expressions given below

1. A personal digital assistant generally consists of a microprocessor, data storage memory..., and an input/output device such as a keyboard and a touchscreen or a LCD screen.

2. PDAs are capable of... a variety of application software packages.

3. The touch-sensitive screen of a PDA are activated by a separate ... stylus.

4. Many existing PDAs offer the ability to ... transmit and receive e-mail messages.

5. The process of ... data into a personal digital assistant or reading . information from a PDA is referred to as hot linking.

6. A personal digital assistant may include a ... down display screen and a control panel.

7. The PDA enables a user to access a terminal using a pen or voice, instead of a conventional ....

fold handheld keyboard wirelessly loading area running

2. Put the questions to the words in bold type

Personal digital assistants are popular both as portable computers and as wireless communication devices. Personal digital assistants are utilized in a variety of applications. They are adapted to perform a variety of functions including organizing, computing, paging, internet browsing, cellular communication and even global positioning. Personal digital assistants provide a user with the convenience to be able to store diaries, meeting schedules, and address books in a compact, transportable form as well as to be able to instantly add new entries such as meeting notes, new addresses etc. A PDA provides computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use. In general, the personal digital assistant is a multi-media product.

3. Answer the questions

1. What is PDA?

2. What does a personal digital assistant generally consist of?

3. What are personal digital assistants used for?

1. What function of the PDA has recently become the most significant one?

4. By what device is the touch-sensitive screen of a PDA activated?

5. Owing to what features are PDAs so popular?

6. How are PDAs connected to other peripheral devices?

2. How is the process of loading data into a personal digital assistant or reading information from a PDA referred to?

1.16. Read and translate the text Programming Languages

Several hundred programming languages exist, each with its own language rules or syntax. Some languages were developed for specific computers; others were developed for specific uses, such as scientific or business applications. The American National Standards Institute has standardized some of these languages. Programs written in an ANSI-standard language can run on many different types of computers, as well as many different operating systems.

Programming languages are classified in five major categories: machine languages, assembler languages, third-generation languages, fourth-generation languages, and natural languages.

Machine languages (or first-generation languages) are the most basic level of programming languages. This type of programming involves the difficult task of writing instructions in the form of strings of binary digits (ones and zeros) or other number systems. Programmers must have a detailed knowledge of the internal operations of the specific type of CPU they are using. They must write long series of detailed instructions to accomplish even simple processing and item of data used. Instructions must be included if every switch and indicator used by the program. These requirements make machine language programming a difficult and error-prone task.

Assembler languages (or second-generation languages) are the next level of programming language. They were developed to reduce the difficulties in writing machine language programs. The use of assembler languages requires language translator programs called assemblers that allow a computer to convert the instructions of such languages into machine instructions. Assembler languages are frequently called symbolic languages because symbols are used to represent operation codes and storage locations. Convenient alphabetic abbreviations called mnemonics (memory aids) and other symbols represent operation codes, storage locations, and data elements.

Advantages and Disadvantages. An assembler language uses alphabetic abbreviations that are easier to remember in place of the actual numeric addresses of the data. This greatly simplifies programming, since the programmer does not need to know the exact storage locations of data and instructions. However, assembler language is still machine oriented, because assembler language instructions correspond closely to the machine language instructions of the particular computer model being used. In addition, each assembler instruction corresponds to a single machine instruction, and the same number of instructions is required in both illustrations.

Assembler language is still widely used as a method of programming a computer in a machine-oriented language. Most computer manufacturers provide an assembler language that reflects the unique machine language instruction set of a particular line of computers. This feature is particularly desirable to system programmers, who program system software (as opposed to application programmers, who program application software), since it provides them with greater control and flexibility in designing -a program for a particular computer. They can then produce more efficient software, that is, programs that require a minimum of instructions, storage, and CPU time to perform a specific processing assignment.

High-level languages (or third-generation languages,) use instructions, which are called statements, that use brief statements or arithmetic expressions.

Individual high-level language statements are actually macroinstructions; that is, each individual statement several machine instructions when translated into machine language by high-level language translator programs called compilers or interpreters. High-level language statements resemble the phrases or mathematical expressions required to express the problem or procedure being programmed. The syntax (vocabulary, punctuation, and grammatical rules) and the semantics (meanings) of such statements do not reflect the internal code of any particular computer. For example, the computation X = Y + Z would be programmed in the high-level languages of BASIC and COBOL.

Advantages and Disadvantages. A high-level language is obviously easier to learn and understand than an assembler language. In addition, high-level languages have less-rigid rules, forms, and syntaxes, so the potential for error is reduced. However, high-level language programs are usually less efficient than assembler language programs and required a greater amount of computer time for translation into machine instructions. Since most high-level language are machine independent, programs written in a high-level language do not have to be reprogrammed when a new computer is installed, and computer programmers do not have to learn a new language for each computer they program.