In this series of programming article, I will discuss, different types programming languages will be used to program a computer systems with their advantages and disadvantages. It will also discuss applications of different types of programming languages in computer. The knowledge of types of programming language will help for selection of programming language to develop a software.
Programming improves: Logical thinking, creativity and problem solving
To interact or communicate with computer we need language. A language used for writing computer programs is called Programming Language. It is a set of instructions written in any specific language (C, C++, Java). Programming is how you get computers to solve problems.
Generations of Programming Languages
There are five generations of programming languages available to program a computer.
(1) First generation: Machine Language, Low Level Language, Binary Language :- [ LLL ]
(2) Second generation: Assembly Language:- [AL]
(3) Third generation: High Level Language: – [ HLL ]: C/C++/Java/PHP/Python
(4) Fourth generation language (4GL): [ HLL]: HTML, XML, SQL
(5) Fifth generation language (5GL) [HLL]: Artificial Intelligence: Prolog, LISP
(1) Machine Language : Machine Language is the language written by using 0’s and 1’s. The computer only understands machine language.
Advantages of machine language:-
(a) It directly communicated with the internal circuitry.
(b) It is fast.
Disadvantages of machine language:-
(a) The binary code is very difficult to learn and find out errors.
(b) It is machine dependent.
Example: 10001011
10011111
(2) Assembly Language :- In assembly language program are written in the form of English abbreviations (Short form) is called mnemonics. The assembly language is machine dependent.
Advantages of AL
(a) It is easy as compared to machine language.
Disadvantages
(a) Machine dependent
(b) It requires assembler to convert program written in AL to LLL which may be costly.
Example. MOV a,b
SUB A,B
ADD A,B
MUL A,C
Example:
MVI A,10H
MVI B,20H
ADD B
OUT B
HLT
(3) High Level Language:- HLL is the language written using human understandable language like English. HLL languages are easier to learn and use. It is machine independent language. HLL can be run on many different computers with very little or no alternation.
A program written in HLL is called source program.
Example:
COBOL [COmmon Business Oriented Language]
FORTRAN [FORmula TRANslation]
C, C++, Java, C#, VB.NET, VB, Pascal, Scala, Julia, Kotlin, PHP, Go, Swift, Carbon
Advantage of HLL
(a) Simple
(b) Portable
Limitation
(a) It requires compiler or interpreter which may be costly.
(4) 4GL: In 4GL we have to only specify What to do? We don’t have to specify how to do?
HTML: Hypertext markup language
XML: Extensible markup language
SQL: Structured Query Language
Example in SQL:
Select * from students;
Delete from students where eno=10;
(5) 5GL: 5GL are used specially for developing Artificial Intelligence program.
Example: LISP: LISt Processing
Prolog
In the next article we discussed different types of programming languages available to program a computer. It also discussed applications, advantages and disadvantages of programming languages.
