Question 1

Which programming language is commonly referred to as the 'Mother of all languages' due to its influence on modern syntax?

Accepted Answer

C. C served as the foundation for many modern languages like C++, Java, and Python. It was developed in the early 1970s at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie. This language allows low-level access to memory while providing high-level constructs.

Question 2

Which language was specifically designed for business data processing and is known for its English-like syntax?

Accepted Answer

COBOL. COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language. It was primarily created to be readable by non-technical business professionals. Most legacy banking and administrative systems still use this language today.

Question 3

What is the primary characteristic of an interpreted language compared to a compiled one?

Accepted Answer

Direct execution by a translator. Interpreted languages execute instructions directly without requiring the code to be converted into a binary file first. This makes the development cycle faster as no separate compilation step is needed. Python and Ruby are common examples of interpreted languages.

Question 4

Which programming language is widely considered the first high-level language, designed for mathematical and scientific calculations?

Accepted Answer

FORTRAN. FORTRAN stands for Formula Translation and was introduced by IBM in 1957. It revolutionized computing by allowing programmers to write code using mathematical formulas. It remains a preferred choice for high-performance numerical computing.

Question 5

In computer science, what does 'LISP' stand for, especially in the context of Artificial Intelligence?

Accepted Answer

List Processing. LISP is one of the oldest high-level programming languages still in use. It was developed by John McCarthy in 1958 and is based on mathematical list notation. It became the standard language for AI research due to its flexibility in symbolic manipulation.

Programming Languages — Set 1