Programming Languages

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To perform a job, a computer needs instructions from the users. The instructions given to the computer to perform a task is known as program. In other words programming is a way to communicate with the computer.

We must realize that computer does not

understand any human language without any form of translation. An electronic digital computer understands the binary language I.e. 0’s and 1’s. These 0’s and 1’s represent on or off stage of certain electronic switch within the computer. The grouping of 0’s and 1’s in a certain sequence is called the machine code or machine language that would cause the computer to perform certain operation.

Machine languages are not easy to learn. Therefore English-like languages known as programming languages are used. These are very easy to understand. Programming languages include:-

• ·         Machine languages
• ·         Assembly languages
• ·         High level languages

Machine languages (low level languages):-

The set of binary instruction codes which a computer understands directly is called a machine language. It is different for different computers. It is also called as low-level language. Data and instruction are first converted into the machine language before sent to the computer. Combination of bits is used in various codes to represent different characters.

Assembly languages (low level languages):-

Machine language the basic language of the computer but it is very difficult to understand. Assembly language unlike the machine language are consisted of short symbolic phrases that are understandable by people. These phrases are made up of alphanumeric symbols called mnemonics. Assembly language simplifies the programmer’s job, and makes it easy to find errors. The programs written in assembly language are more efficient in their use, these use fewer instructions and consequentially run faster.

Symbolic language:-

The difficulty in understanding the machine language by the user was solved by symbolic coding using English-like words which a user can understand more easily. The programs written in these languages are then translated into machine language. The idea led to the development of large number of symbolic programming languages which are easy to use and understand. These languages are more suitable than machine languages and enable the programmer to write instructions more easily. These symbolic languages are known as high-level languages. High level languages are completely general in application. Some popular high level languages are Basic, FORTRAN, COBOL, Pascal, Ada, Java and C.

Basic:-

BASIC was developed in 1964. It is sufficiently close to English and is one of the most widely used and easy-to-learn high level language. Even a person with little no knowledge of computer programming can understand it. Basic can be used for both business and scientific applications.

FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation):-

FORTRAN was developed in 1957 for IBM computers. It was designed to solve mathematical, scientific and engineering problems. FORTRAN was one of the earliest languages to introduce the concept of modular programming. FORTRAN is a standard high level language. It has been revised many times.

COBOL:-

COBOL was developed in 2959. It is an internationally accepted high level language developed for general, commercial and business purposes. COBOL was first high level language suitable for handling large amount of data relating to pay roll, credit and debit accounts, inventory and a variety of other business applications.

PASCAL:-

PASCAL is programming language named after the French mathematician and scientist Blasé Pascal. It was developed during the early 70’s. Pascal is a highly structured programming language which is extremely popular in computer science.

C:-

C is the full name of programming language developed in 1972 by Brain Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. It is the most favorite language of programmers for writing operating system. Programs written in C produce fast and executable code. C is also a very powerful language. With the help of C you can make computer do just anything it is possible for a computer to do.

C++:-

C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in the early 1980s. Like C, C++ is a very powerful and efficient language. But C++ is even more difficult to understand and learn than C, because C++ is a superset of C, learning C++ means learning everything about C, and then learning about object-oriented programming and its implementation with C++.