What language do you code?
As a SE student, the term programming is very much used in our studies and very familiar to most people who have ever got their hands on a smart piece of technology like a computer or a smartphone. In this post we dive into programming languages in terms of their classification into generations of different age and purposes. But first, let's define what a programming language actually means:
A programming language is a formal language used to create programs by specifing sets of rules and instructions. Programming languages are usually divided into two main categories: High-level and Low-level languages. High-level languages are thoses used by programmersto write code but this code need to be compiled into low-level langauges to be understood by the computer.
Programming languages are also classified mainly by their generation into 5 main generations namely:
First Generation programming languages also known as machine languages are language that computers understand, they were the first languages used to program when computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, a well-known example of this generation is binary code which is strings of 0's and 1's.
Fifth generation programming language contain visual tools and advancednt development environments, they are typically used in AI development. The instructions used in 5GL languages are highly sophisticated. It means that hundreds of 4GL instructions may be replaced by a single 5GL instruction. Examples of fifth generation languages include Mercury.
References:
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/num/1gl.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1I1nSIfp4
http://www.geofizika.uni-miskolc.hu/Oktatok/vass/Generations_and_paradigms.pdf
A programming language is a formal language used to create programs by specifing sets of rules and instructions. Programming languages are usually divided into two main categories: High-level and Low-level languages. High-level languages are thoses used by programmersto write code but this code need to be compiled into low-level langauges to be understood by the computer.
Programming languages are also classified mainly by their generation into 5 main generations namely:
- First Generation programming language
- Second Generation programming language
- Third Generation programming language
- Fourth Generation programming language
- Fifth Generation programming language
Let's go through a brief of each of these generations:
First Generation programming languages also known as machine languages are language that computers understand, they were the first languages used to program when computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, a well-known example of this generation is binary code which is strings of 0's and 1's.
Second Generation programming languages use
mnemonics code that are very short words for commands, they are commonly used in kernels and video editing. Assembly language is an example of this generation. This type of language is to be converted by an assember into machine languages in order to be run.
Third generation programming language is known as high-level language, they can be understood by humans and use English language in their syntax. They are machine independant meaning applications created with 3LG can be run on other computers than that they were created on with the help of a compiler. Popular examples in this generation are: C++, Java and Visual Basic.
Fourth generation programming language uses English-like commands, these langauges use microprocessors. They are commonly used in database programming and scripts examples include PHP, Python, and SQL.
References:
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/num/1gl.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js1I1nSIfp4
http://www.geofizika.uni-miskolc.hu/Oktatok/vass/Generations_and_paradigms.pdf
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