What is Programming Language?
Programming languages are formal languages designed to express instructions that can be executed by computers. They provide a set of rules and syntax for writing programs and enable programmers to create software applications, websites, games, and much more.
Table of Contents
Overview of programming languages:
1. C:
Developed in the early 1970s, C is a general-purpose, procedural language known for its efficiency and low-level programming capabilities. It has influenced many modern languages and is commonly used in system programming and embedded systems.
2. C++:
C++ is an extension of the C programming language and introduces object-oriented programming (OOP) features. It supports both procedural and OOP paradigms and is widely used for game development, high-performance applications, and systems programming.
3. Java:
Java is a popular, platform-independent language known for its “write once, run anywhere” principle. It is an object-oriented language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), making it portable across different operating systems. Java is widely used for enterprise software, Android app development, and large-scale applications.
4. Python:
Python is a high-level, interpreted language with a focus on readability and simplicity. It emphasizes code readability and provides a large standard library, making it beginner-friendly. Python is widely used in web development, data analysis, artificial intelligence, and scientific computing.
5. JavaScript:
JavaScript is a scripting language primarily used for web development. It runs in web browsers and allows developers to create interactive web pages and dynamic web applications. JavaScript has gained popularity with the rise of frameworks like React and Node.js, enabling server-side and mobile app development as well.
6. Ruby:
Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented language known for its elegant syntax and developer-friendly features. It emphasizes simplicity and productivity and is often associated with the Ruby on Rails web framework, which is widely used for building web applications.
7. Swift:
Swift is a programming language developed by Apple for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app development. It is designed to be safe, fast, and expressive, with a focus on modern programming patterns. Swift has gained popularity among developers targeting Apple platforms.
8. Go:
Go, also known as Golang, is a statically typed, compiled language developed by Google. It aims to provide simplicity, efficiency, and built-in support for concurrent programming. Go is commonly used for web servers, distributed systems, and cloud-native development.
9. Rust:
Rust is a systems programming language that focuses on safety, performance, and concurrency. It provides memory safety guarantees without sacrificing low-level control. Rust is increasingly used in projects where both performance and security are critical, such as browsers, operating systems, and networking software.
10. TypeScript:
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds static typing and other features to enhance JavaScript development. It enables developers to catch errors during development and improves code maintainability in large-scale applications. TypeScript is often used with frameworks like Angular for web development.
Each language has a unique set of keywords (words that it understands) and a special syntax for organizing program instructions. High-level programming languages, while simple compared to human languages, are more complex than the languages the computer actually understands, called machine languages .
These are just a few examples of programming languages, and there are many more available, each with its own strengths and areas of application. The choice of language depends on the specific requirements of the project, available libraries and frameworks, and the preferences of the development team.
Each different type of CPU has its own unique machine language.
MACHINE LANGUAGE
Programming language that can be directly understood and obeyed by a machine (computer) without conversion (translation). Different for each type of CPU, it is the native binary language (comprised of only two characters: 0 and 1) of the computer and is difficult to be read and understood by humans.
LOW LEVEL LANGUAGE
In computer science , a low-level programming language is a programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer’s instruction set architecture commands or functions in the language map closely to processor instructions. Generally this refers to either machine code or assembly language .
HIGH LEVEL LANGUAGE
A programming language such as C , FORTRAN, or Pascal that enables a programmer to write programs that are more or less independent of a particular type of computer. Such languages are considered high-level because they are closer to human languages and further from machine languages.
Questions
- What is a programming language ?
- Gives examples of a programming Language
Assignments
Define the following
- Machine Language
- Low level language
- High level language
See also:
INTRODUCTION TO DATA PROCESSING
Computer Input devices and Output devices