Slowness of interpretation of programs:

Computers available in early 1950's were far less usable as compared to the systems of today because they were slow, expensive, have very smaller memories and lacked of supporting software.

None of the systems of that era had hardware support for doing operations on floating point values.

So, all the floating point operations had to be simulated using some kind of software. This was a much time consuming process...

Expert Solution & Answer

Want to see the full answer?

Check out a sample textbook solution

See solution

Chapter 2, Problem 4RQ

Chapter 2, Problem 6RQ

Students have asked these similar questions

What exactly is an optimising compiler, and how does it accomplish its job? Why on earth would you ever want to use one of these whenever you are writing code? Do you find it possible to conceive of a situation in which you wouldn't need one of these?

Is there any kind of order to the chaos that is computer programming? When selecting a programming language, what factors should be taken into account before making a final choice?

Could you please explain what an optimising compiler is and how it works? When, as a programmer, would you want to make use of one? Is there ever a moment when one of these wouldn't be useful?

Chapter 2 Solutions

Pearson eText for Concepts of Programming Languages -- Instant Access (Pearson+)

Ch. 2 - In what year was Plankalkl designed? In what year...Ch. 2 - What two common data structures were included in...Ch. 2 - How were the pseudocodes of the early 1950s...Ch. 2 - Speedcoding was invented to overcome two...Ch. 2 - Prob. 5RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 6RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 7RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 8RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 9RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 10RQ

Ch. 2 - Prob. 11RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 12RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 13RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 14RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 15RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 16RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 17RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 18RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 19RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 20RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 21RQ Ch. 2 - On what programming language was COBOL based?Ch. 2 - In what year did the COBOL design process begin?Ch. 2 - What data structure that appeared in COBOL...Ch. 2 - What organization was most responsible for the...Ch. 2 - Prob. 26RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 27RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 28RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 29RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 30RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 31RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 32RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 33RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 34RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 35RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 36RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 37RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 38RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 39RQ Ch. 2 - What Ada construct provides support for abstract...Ch. 2 - What populates the Smalltalk world?Ch. 2 - Prob. 42RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 43RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 44RQ Ch. 2 - What do the Ada and COBOL languages have in...Ch. 2 - What was the first application for Java?Ch. 2 - Prob. 47RQ Ch. 2 - How does the typing system of PHP and JavaScript...Ch. 2 - Prob. 49RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 50RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 51RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 52RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 53RQ Ch. 2 - What data structure does Python use in place of...Ch. 2 - Prob. 55RQ Ch. 2 - What characteristic of Rubys arithmetic operators...Ch. 2 - Prob. 57RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 58RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 59RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 60RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 61RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 62RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 63RQ Ch. 2 - Prob. 1PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 2PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 3PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 4PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 5PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 6PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 7PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 8PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 9PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 10PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 11PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 12PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 13PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 14PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 15PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 16PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 17PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 18PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 19PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 20PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 21PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 22PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 23PS Ch. 2 - Prob. 24PS

Knowledge Booster

Solution Summary: The author explains the slowness of interpretation of programs in early 1950's because floating point hardware was unavailable in computers, and the time for interpretation and simulation of indexing was relatively insignificant.

Explanation of Solution

Want to see the full answer?

Chapter 2 Solutions