Language primitive
In computing, language primitives are the simplest elements available in a
Primitives are units with a meaning, i.e., a
Machine-level primitives
A
Microcode primitives
Many of today's computers, however, actually embody an even lower unit of processing known as microcode which interprets the machine code and it is then that the microcode instructions would be the genuine primitives. These instructions would typically be available for modification only by the hardware vendor's programmers.
High-level language primitives
A
- calculate the address of both operands in memory, based on their positions within a data structure,
- convert from one data type to another
before finally
- performing the final store operation to the target destination.
Some HLL statements, particularly those involving loops, can generate thousands or even millions of primitives in a low-level programming language (LLL), which comprise the genuine instruction path length the processor has to execute at the lowest level. This perception has been referred to as the abstraction penalty.[1][2][3]
Interpreted language primitives
An
Fourth and fifth-generation language primitives
See also
- Primitive type
- Hardware-software codesign
References
- ^ Surana P (2006). "Meta-Compilation of Language Abstractions" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
- ^ Kuketayev. "The Data Abstraction Penalty (DAP) Benchmark for Small Objects in Java". Archived from the original on 2009-01-11. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
- ISBN 978-3-540-43784-0.