document.133

<<<<<<< HEAD
Programming language

Related Terms

    C++
    C#
    C
    BASIC
    C-RIMM
    cHTML
    Visual C++
    Visual Basic
    AspectC++
    c-learning



By Vangie Beal

Programming Language

A vocabulary and set of grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific tasks. The term programming language usually refers to high-level languages, such as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, and Pascal. 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. Each different type of CPUhas its own unique machine language.
The Challenges of Cloud Integration
Download Now

Lying between machine languages and high-level languages are languages called assembly languages. Assembly languages are similar to machine languages, but they are much easier to program in because they allow a programmer to substitute namesfor numbers. Machine languages consist of numbers only.

Lying above high-level languages are languages called fourth-generation languages (usually abbreviated 4GL). 4GLs are far removed from machine languages and represent the class of computer languages closest to human languages.

Regardless of what language you use, you eventually need to convertyour program into machine language so that the computer can understand it. There are two ways to do this:

1) compile the program
2) interpret the program

Recommended Reading: See compile and interpreter for more information about these two methods.

The question of which language is best is one that consumes a lot of time and energy among computer professionals. Every language has its strengths and weaknesses. For example, FORTRAN is a particularly good language for processing numerical data, but it does not lend itself very well to organizing large programs. Pascal is very good for writing well-structured and readable programs, but it is not as flexible as the C programming language. C++ embodies powerful object-oriented features, but it is complex and difficult to learn.

The choice of which language to use depends on the type of computer the program is to run on, what sort of program it is, and the expertise of the programmer.




PREVIOUS
programmer
NEXT
Progress Software


Related Links

    Programmer's Oasis
    C programming language
    Programming Language Research


=======
Off-side rule languages[edit]
Off-side rule languages are those where blocks are formed, indicated, by their indentation.

ISWIM, the abstract language that introduced the rule
ABC, Python's parent
Python
Cobra
Boo
Genie
Miranda, Haskell's parent
Orwell
Haskell
Curry
Elixir
F#
Nim
Occam
SPIN
XL
Procedural languages[edit]
Procedural programming languages are based on the concept of the unit and scope (the data viewing range of an executable code statement). A procedural program is composed of one or more units or modules, either user coded or provided in a code library; each module is composed of one or more procedures, also called a function, routine, subroutine, or method, depending on the language. Examples of procedural languages include:

Ada (multi-purpose language)
ALGOL (extremely influential language design – the second high level language compiler)
SMALL Machine Algol Like Language
Alma-0
BASIC (BASICs are innocent of most modularity in (especially) versions before about 1990)
BCPL
BLISS
Blue
C
C++ (C with objects plus much else, such as, generics through STL)
C# (similar to Java/C++)
Ceylon
ChucK (C/Java-like syntax, with new syntax elements for time and parallelism)
COBOL
Cobra
ColdFusion
Combined Programming Language (CPL)
Curl
D
DASL (partly declarative, partly imperative)
eC
ECMAScript
ActionScript
ECMAScript for XML
JavaScript (first named Mocha, then LiveScript)
JScript
Eiffel
Fortran (better modularity in later Standards)
F
GAUSS
Go
Harbour
HyperTalk
Java
Groovy
Join Java
Tea
JOVIAL
Julia
Lasso
Modula-2 (fundamentally based on modules)
Mathematica
MATLAB
MUMPS (More modular in its first release than a language of the time should have been; The standard has become still more modular since then.)
Nemerle
Oberon and Oberon-2 (improved, smaller, faster, safer follow-ons for Modula-2)
Component Pascal
Lagoona
Seneca
Occam
Oriel
Pascal (successor to ALGOL 60, predecessor of Modula-2)
Free Pascal (FPC)
Object Pascal (Delphi)
PCASTL
Perl
Pike
PL/C
PL/I (large general purpose language, originally for IBM mainframes)
Plus
PROSE
Python
R
Rapira
RPG (available only in IBM's System i midrange computers)
Rust
S-Lang
VBScript
Visual Basic
Visual FoxPro
Wolfram Language
X++
X#
XL
>>>>>>> 8101f027b4ff76c9c7a47c43e46d5824b49ecf5a