Programming Languages: Concepts and Implementation

1.4 Styles of Programming

We use the term “styles of programming” rather than perhaps the more common/conventional, but antiquated, term “paradigm of programming.” See Section 1.4.6 for an explanation.

1.4.1 Imperative Programming

The primary method of describing/affecting computation in an imperative style of programming is through the execution of a sequence of commands or imperatives that use assignment to modify the values of variables—which are themselves abstractions of memory cells. In C and Fortran, for example, the primary mode of programming is imperative in nature. The imperative style of programming is a natural consequence of basing a computer on the von Neumann architecture, which is defined by its uniform representation of both ...