This subchapter looks at the common lexical elements of a programming language.
The student should know what a lexical element is, what a token is, and the names of the lexical elements in the programming language being used.
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This subchapter looks at the common lexical elements of a programming language.
The lexical elements of a programming language are the building blocks for making a valid program in that particular programming language.
The lexical elements are also called tokens. Note that some items, such as comments and white space, are often considered not to be a token. The line between tokens and non-tokens varies by language.
Common tokens or lexical elements include: comments, identifiers, key words, literals, operators, reserved words, separators, and white space.
We have already discuused some of these items, particularly comments and white space, when discussing good documentation techniques.
Coding example: I am making heavily documented and explained open source code for a method to play music for free — almost any song, no subscription fees, no download costs, no advertisements, all completely legal. This is done by building a front-end to YouTube (which checks the copyright permissions for you).
View music player in action: www.musicinpublic.com/.
Create your own copy from the original source code/ (presented for learning programming).
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free downloadable college text book
Because I no longer have the computer and software to make PDFs, the book is available as an HTML file, which you can convert into a PDF.
Building a free downloadable text book on computer programming for university, college, community college, and high school classes in computer programming.
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Copyright © 2011 Milo
Created: January 3, 2011
Last Updated: January 3, 2011
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