Programming Languages
Language is basically a system of communication where
sound or signs convey objects, action and ideas. The history of language dates
back to many thousands of years. Language is primarily spoken not written. But
the development of the writing medium and later the printing system went a long
way is the dissipation of knowledge and without which humans would have
remained in the dark about the ways of life and thought processes of their
ancestors. Language is the key to human lives. They can eliminate
misunderstanding by using it as an instrument to transfer communication among
people.
Language is a means
of conveying ideas to others. This can also to a certain extent be done by the
use of gestures and signs.
A programming
language is a computer language which programmers use to develop applications,
scripts or other set of instructions for a computer to execute.
Or we can say, programming language is
a language designed to describe a set consecutive actions to be executed by a
computer. A programming language therefore, a practical way for us (humans) to
give instructions to the computer.
Types
of Programming Languages
There are mainly two types of programming languages.
These are:
1. Low-Level
Languages
2.
High-Level
Languages
Low-Level Languages
Low-Level languages are machine codes. Computers
cannot understand instructions given in English. It can only understand and
execute instructions given in the form of machine language, i.e., language of 0
and 1.
There are two types
of low-level language:
1. Machine Language
2. Assembly
Language
Machine Language (First Generation Language or 1GL)
Machine Language is the lowest and most elementary
level of programming language. It was the first type of programming language to
be developed. It is manufacturer designs a computer to obey just one language, it’s
machine code, which is represented inside the computer by a string of binary
digits (bits) 0 and 1. The symbol 0 stand for the absence of electric
bulbs and 1 for the presence of electric pulse. Since, a computer is capable of
recognising electrical signals, therefore, it understands machine language.
Assembly Language (Second Generation Language or 2GL)
Assembly language is a low-level programming language for computer or
other Programmable devices specific to a particular computer architecture in
contrast to most high-level programming languages, which are generally portable
into executable machine code by utility programs referred to as an assembler
like, MASM, etc.
High-Level Language (3rd Generation Language or 3GL)
High-level language gives formats close to English language. The purpose
of developing a high-level language is to enable people to write programs
easily and in their own native language environment (English). High-level
languages are basically symbolic languages that use English words for
mathematical symbols rather than mnemonic codes. Each instruction in high
level language is translated into Many machine language instructions, thus,
shows one-to-many translation.
Fourth Generation
Language (4GL)
Fourth generation language is a grouping of programming language
that attempt to get closer than 3GLs to human language, forms of thinking
and conceptualization.
4GLs Are designed to reduce the overall time, effort and cost of
software development. the main domain and families of 4GLs are: Database
queries, report generator, data manipulation, analysis and reporting, screen painters
and generators, GUI Creators, mathematical Optimisation, web development
and general-purpose languages.
Fifth
Generation Languages (5GL)
The Fifth-generation
programming language or visual programming language, is also known as Natural
languages. Provides a visual of graphical interface, called divisible
programming environment for creating source codes list of 5th generation
programming allows people to interact with computers without needing any specialised
knowledge.
People can talk to computers without needing any specialised knowledge.
people can talk to computers and the voice recognition system can convert
spoken sound into a written word list of prologue and mercury are the best-known
5th generation languages.
Some More Programming Languages
Let
us read to know about some of the programming languages
BASIC
The original basic was first developed at Dartmouth University by John
kemeny and Thomas Kurtz and introduced on 1st May, 1964. basic is Short form of
beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code and is an easy-to-understand
programming language. today, basic is not used to develop programs, but is
sometimes used to help to teach the fundamentals of programming. Below is an
example of a basic program that prints “hello world!”.
10 print “Hello World”
20 END
Although basic is not commonly used today, new variants of basic such as
Visual Basic are still popular and widely used.
C
C is a general purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming
language developed in 1972 by Dennus M. Ritchie At the Bell Telephone
Laboratories to develop the UNIX Operating system. C is the most widely used
computer language. it keeps fluctuating at number one scale of popularity along
with Java programming language, which is also equally popular and most widely
used among modern software programmers.
HTML
HTML Was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990. HTML is short for
hypertext mark-up language. it is your language used to create web page on the
world wide web that contains hyperlinks to other pages. every webpage we see on
the Internet contains HTML code that helps format and show text and images in
an easy to read format.
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is a
computer programming system that has been developed and owned by Microsoft.
Visual Basic was originally created to make it easier to write programs for the
windows computer operating system. Visual Basic is often referred to by using
just the initials, VB. Visual Basic is easily accessible and the most widely
used computer programming system inthe history of software.
COBOL
COBOL (common business-oriented language) was the first widely-used
high-level programming language for business and applications. Many Pay rolls,
accounting and other business application programs writing in COBOL over the
past 35 years are still in use and it is possible that there are most
expressing lines of programming quotes in COBOL than in any other programming
language.
FORTRAN
FORTRAN Stand for formula translator. it was one of the first
programming language. the creation of begin in 1954 by the members of the IBM
team. it was first introduced to the public on 15th October, 1956. 
JavaScript
JavaScript is a dynamic computer programming language. it is lightweight
and most commonly used as a part of web page, whose implementation allow
client-side Script to interact with the user and mouse dynamic pages. it is an
interpreted programming language with object- oriented capability.
JavaScript watch first known as livescript, but Netscape changed its
name to JavaScript, possibly because of the excitement generated by Java.
JavaScript made its first appearance in Netscape 2.0 in 1995With the name
livescript. the general-purpose code of the language has been embedded in
Netscape Internet Explorer and other web browsers.
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