Computer Languages Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: symbolic addresses

In assembly language a programmer gives a memory location a name of his own choosing - a label - and the assembler works out the actual address. Such names are symbolic addresses. Mnemonics, by contrast, stand for operations rather than for locations.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Both of the above

Machine language and assembly language are the two low level languages: both work in the processor's own instruction set, one in binary and the other in mnemonics that map to it one for one.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Assembly

Assembly language is written in the mnemonics of one particular instruction set, so a program written for one processor family will not assemble for another. C is compiled and can be recompiled for any target, and Java runs on a virtual machine, which is what makes it independent.

Answer: A

Correct answer: real integers

Numeric input must be held in a numeric type, so that arithmetic can be done with it. A string type would store the digits as characters, and adding two such values would join them rather than sum them - which is exactly the mistake this question is guarding against.

Answer: D

Correct answer: all of these

All three translate one form of code into another: a compiler converts a whole high level program at once, an interpreter converts and executes it statement by statement, and an assembler converts assembly mnemonics into machine code.

Answer: B

Correct answer: variable

NUM receives whatever the INPUT statement reads, so its value changes from one run to the next. That is what makes it a variable; the numbers 5.6 and 10 written into the same line are the constants.

Answer: B

Correct answer: It is very efficient in coding and execution

COBOL was designed for readability and portability in business data processing, and it achieves both: its English-like statements are easy to follow and the language is standardised. The cost is verbosity and slow execution, so efficiency is precisely what it is not known for.

Answer: B

Correct answer: To decode instructions and generate control signals

The control unit fetches each instruction, decodes it, and issues the timing and enable signals that make the other units carry it out. Arithmetic and logic are performed by the ALU, storage by memory, and input by the input devices - the control unit directs them all without doing any of their work itself.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Common Algorithmic Language

COMAL stands for COMmon ALgorithmic Language. It was devised in Denmark to combine the accessibility of BASIC with the structure of Pascal.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Arithmetic and logical unit

Executing a command means actually performing the operation it specifies, and that is the ALU's work. The control unit decides what shall be executed and when, but the execution itself happens in the ALU.