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BTEC National for IT Practitioners
Unit 6: Software Design
& Development Reasons for Choosing Programming Languages
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Objectives Understand what the reasons are for choosing to
use different programming languages
Produce a brochure in order to
describe each reason providing an example of programming languages and their use
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Assessment Criteria… Describe the factors influencing the choice of
programming language (U6 P2)
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Reasons for Choice of Language Organisational policy Suitability in terms
of features and tools Availability of trained staff Reliability Development and maintenance
cost Expandability
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Organisational Policy Some companies (particularly large ones) have an
organisational policy as to what computer hardware and software
is to be used
For example, a company might have a policy to use only Microsoft software because of the level of support that may be provided by such a large software vendor
Another company might have chosen to use Apple Macintosh machines, while another might have a policy to use open-source software such as Linux
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Suitability in terms of Features & Tools Two
questions have to be answered when deciding on the
suitability of a programming language:- Will it work on the platform being used in the company? Does it have appropriate features to suit the type of applications that have to be written?
Some programming languages have been specifically designed for particular types of applications
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Availability of Trained Staff In a commercial programming environment,
the programmers who work for a particular company may
already be skilled in using a particular language so that language may be the natural choice
For a project where staff need to be recruited to complete the programming, it should prove easier to recruit staff for a popular language rather than a less widely used one. So, this may also be a factor to be considered when deciding which language to use
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Reliability Some programming languages have features built into them
which help to make the programs more reliable and
less likely to crash
The best example of this is the Ada language – it was designed from the outset to include features which make it reliable
Ada is often used for safety-critical systems such as the fly-by-wire control system of the Boeing 777 aircraft
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Development & Maintenance Costs Cost of developing and maintaining
programs is an important consideration when embarking on a
software development project
Some languages have a reputation for cutting development costs by making it quick and easy to develop and maintain (update) programs
For example, in the 1980s, report program generator (RPG) was specifically designed to allow the speedy creation of reports
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Expandability Some software systems have to support hundreds or
even thousands of simultaneous users Programs written for interactive websites
may need to support a very large number of users without crashing Some languages expand or scale better than others and have features which support large systems
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Task… Produce a brochure to describe the factors that