hello guys have a question for yall, i am very much in need of help with pascal programming,i need your help with this question,
can you please tell me what is meant by program portability and why are low level languages not considered to be portable .

also why you think it is necessary to translate a pascal program into a machine mode oriented .
looking forward to your help guys.
thanks alot.

Why don't you tell us what you think and we'll tell you if we agree.

You'll have to show some attempt at homework before we'll help.

Some questions to get your mind juices flowing:

What is a low-level language? What is the lowest level language you can think of? (hint...lower than C) Why wouldn't a program written in that language be very portable (ie why couldn't I use it on a mac and my pc?)

I don't understand what you mean by "machine mode oriented"

-SN

guys i am now starting this course and i don't know much about it, the teacher gives as homework so i am asking for your help please.

I agree with SN on this, you need to do the homework to understand the concepts behind it. Having it handed to you, may get you the grade but not the knowledge. I will let you determine which one is more important.

I will answer your question briefly, however it is in your best interests to research this yourself and be knowledgable in the deatils... as this is part of the foundation that everything else is built on.

Program portability... is when you can take a program from one computer and execute it on another computer of a different type and/or operating system and not have
errors or conflicts.

Low level languages are not really portable because they are platform / machine dependent. For example, I can't take
my assembly code from home and run it on a Cray supercomputer, or a Macintosh, etc for that matter.

Machine code equals speed. The higher level languages help us in coding efforts, think about righting a program in only 1s and 0s and you can appreciate the higher level languages and the abstraction they provide.

Now, knowing that this is in fact a homework question and all you are going to do is copy and paste my answers to your assignment... do me a favor and let me know how you personally would answer these questions, know that you have a general idea and do yourself a favor and research this further.

IR

dear IR,

wait a minute.......is this a homework question? maybe you might like to re-read
the question again and take up english classes.

"By no means am I advocating what to or not to post, post what you please... if it is a blatant "Do my homework" question with the specs thrown up and wanted the complete project sent to the student via email..."

does this fit your description of a homework question? is this person asking you to create a program for him? this is a far cry from a homework question!

my stance, especially for anti-homework fans is do not assume everything is homework or you might piss other users off and furthermore and get retaliation from people
like Exodus. think about it... who wants to post any programming questions with you guys around?

.....and for the question, my answer is that computers only run on machine language and therefore do not understand pascal codes.
A compiler does that job!! hope this answers your question.

saddam

I'll spare IR the task of defending himself and jump in here...Although he'll probably want to write his own response.

I don't understand your point saddam...Are you saying that Avinash's question is not a homework question? I assume since you got to response number 3 you also read response number 2...

"do not assume everything is homework or you might piss other users off and furthermore and get retaliation from people like Exodus."

Who's assuming anything is homework? I think the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to that conclusion. IR certainly didn't assume anything, because Avinash had told us quite frankly it was a homework assignment. Although it looks like I might have assumed this was homework, I did not. Avinash had previously asked homework questions in pascal, so I knew he was taking a pascal course. Also, the question above is not one that somebody asks when they are just learning the language for kicks.

I have, on occasion, assumed questions were homework because of their nature, and I don't believe I've been wrong yet. I'm something like an "18th year senior", so I've done enough homework problems to be able to pick them out of a lineup. But in the slight possibility that I have assumed wrong, I'm sure if the user clarified I gave a more helpful response.

"This is a far cry from a homework question."
Maybe you could explain to me what is your definition of a "homework question"...If saying "here's my homework please help" isn't a homework question, I'd like to see one that is.

If you ask a homework question, you'll usually get 1 of 3 replies, depending on how you ask it and who gets to it first:-)

1. Pointing, mocking, and laughing. These are reserved for the ones that simply put "do my homework. e-mail me the code." Don Arnett and Micah definitely have the funniest responses to these ones, but the rest of us come in every now and then with some follow up mocking.

2. Lecture on trying it yourself first. Like the above, when you can see that they aren't posting the entire assignment, just one area of clarification, but don't seem to be interested in actually learning it, we usually try to give some kind of encouragement and some "jumping off" places without actually doing the assignment. This is in the best interest of the student...If they keep posting their homework they'll just get behind and drop out. Then they probably will go into politics.

3. Helpful information. The ones that show that they've made a genuine effort but are just stuck on a concept or syntax error. These ones are gladly accepted by nearly everyone in here (including IR and myself) and we help if we can.

"take up english classes"
Written in the same sentence as "re-read the question again" (reduntant much?), in a post where the only proper grammar was in the quote from the one who "needs english classes", I think this one is its own rebuttal.

I don't really get what you were trying to say anyway.

"Who wants to post any programming questions with you guys around?"
Apparently, lots of people. The anti-homework club answers the majority of the posts...The only one I can think of that really significantly contributes to the forum but hasn't rebuked a homework poster or taken sides in the homework issue at one time or another is anonproxy...But you don't see him e-mailing these guys assignments to them. (although I have a feeling if he did, they'd probably be over even the instructors' heads and the kid would get expelled for cheating)

Finally, for your answer to the question...Your answer is correct, as far as it goes, but you only answered the last one of his questions...Or what we think was his last question...I don't know what "machine mode oriented" means and he didn't want an answer enough to clarify. Nevertheless, I thought IR's post was just as helpful (if not more so) than yours. He answered the first two questions, and explained the underlying concepts. In proper English.

If you've been in the forum long at all, you probably know that IR and the rest of us "anti homeworkers" help the majority of the people that post questions, homework or otherwise. So get off your high horse and actually help people rather than just criticize everyone else for being selective.

-SN

well ok,

my definition of a homework question meets the elaborated criteria as IR has pointed out in 7407,

>> #2) You demand the code in its entirety to be emailed to you or want it by a certain time.

>> #4) You do not list specifically where you are having difficulty, you just throw the assignment up and say "help me".

in this case he specifically lists the two questions

these are one of the strongest tell tale signs that defines it as assignments.

basically, if it is a do this assignment or program without any attempt on his part isconsidered a omework question.

it is a good thing that, however IR helped Avinash.

saddam

Saddam,

Thanks for your concern, regarding my English. However, I am well versed in the language and have already had my fair share of classes, I could be wrong but, perhaps its your turn.

I am not entirely sure how you determined that this is a "far cry" from a homework question. Again, I could be wrong, but it seems to me to be apparent that you have not taken college oriented classes in the computing field. As these questions, asked by Avinash, are commonly asked by professors to entry level students.

I believe that you are on the same line with
Exodus in the fact that you do not understand
if we do these students' homework for them, it does not help them in the long run, especially when they have to do it to make a living. I, and most others, like to see people make a valid attempt at the homework, so they can at least be aware of how the answer was derived. In the end, the GPA means nothing and its all about what you know or who you know.

---

SN:

Thank's for your comments. I agree with you:
"Also, the question above is not one that
somebody asks when they are just learning
the language for kicks."

Damn, this is funny... "If they keep posting
their homework they'll just get behind and
drop out. Then they probably will go into
politics." Or in the case at my old university: they go into history, psychology, sociology, business, etc.

At any rate, SN, you outlined the response categories quite well; the best that I've seen to date. I try to stay around the 2 to 3 range, although I have my fair share of laughter in the instance of #1 and realize that those people will never make it in the industry, but will have a GPA that will ultimately mean nothing... because they will get a job that they can not perform in and will be let go. It happens all the time.

Well, I need to plaster unrelated information all over this guy's thread... just wanted to convey some points.

IR

==============================================================
AVINASH,

I'm going to agree with SN, IR and the others. Those who have seen my posts will understand. We are not saying that we do not want to help. The problem is that we are NOT actaully helping if we straight out answer the questions for you even if only conceptual questions. We will bend over backward to help you to understand rather than memorize. Ask yourself what the difference between actual understanding and memorizing is and you may start to see why we do things this way on this forum. We wish to encourage you not discourage you but encouragement comes with actual learning and nothing else.

My suggestion is for you to post the questions with your understanding of them no matter how correct or incorrect you believe them to be (no one will make fun of you for trying whether you're wrong or right it makes no difference). The overwhelming majority of us have learned more using this approach than we could have ever memorized or learned in a classroom. Most of us have taken college courses and have degrees. Many of us don't. I for one am one of those who began programming at 12 years of age (23 years ago) and have never accepted college as my personal choice for learning but it does have its place.

Again, post the questions with what your understanding is and we will help you clear up any mis-understandings. I can promise you this. If you take our advice, you will learn the concepts and remember them forever. If you just memorize the answers then eventually this information will be lost to you and it will have no value what so ever in the long run.

Just give it a try (blind faith if you must) and we will definitely help you out. Most of us on this forum get a great amount of satisfaction out of helping others with their questions so please don't give up on asking just because we are encouraging you to take a slightly different approach.

Also, if you have a book that tells you a definition for these phrases then post that and let us know that you are having a hard time understanding the definition. At least this way we know that you took the time and effort to try to find the answers, ok?

best of luck and let us know what we can help you with....

borelli35

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Read this and learn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_programming_language

Be practical about the homework thing. The poster asked generic questions which are fundamental and yet require some understanding of modern computation procedure. Everyone has to have assembly vs. C explained to them sometime - whether through a book or through a person. The three principles follow:

A) Do not post specific implementation problems and exercises without any effort of your own at a solution. (Already stated elsewhere).

B) Do not post problems and questions that are intended for exercise, but rather learning. This can be vague, but 1+1=? is meant as an exercise. 1+v=y, where y=7 is also an exercise. However why =y would be placed on the far right in some languages (syntax and its logic) or perhaps how might one might alter the value of y in a subclass (OOP and how it works), are principle questions and require explanation, not just a solution.

C) Responders should not post whole solutions. Explanations, examples, and advice are fine. But a whole solution is giving away the answer and might (we must assume) keep the poster from understanding and solving problems independently.

What all posters of homework questions need to do is state what they understand and what they do not understand (perhaps in the form of thought-out questions) in relation to the problem. In this example, the poster does not understand assembly code and its relationship to the Pascal language. The poster could have asked several things:

"What is a lower level language?"
"Is Pascal a high or low level language and why?"
"What is machine mode (assembly)?"
"What does assembly have to do with Pascal?"

These questions do not answer the poster's problem(s), but rather address the poster's lack of understanding, which is necessary to solve the problems. This forum does not exist to do homework exercises, but to educate and advise. Solving exercises is not education; learning, interpreting, and applying input is education. The exercise is meant to develop the process of learning, interpreting, and applying.