What Is Programming ? Types of Computer Languages

What Is Programming ?

What is Programming ?

Computer programming is defined as instructing a computer what to do through a special set of instructions which are interpreted by the computer to perform some tasks. These instructions can be specified in one or more programming languages including Java, C, and C++.

A computer goes through a set of steps whose purpose is to achieve something. These steps are instructed to the computer by computer programs. Essentially, computer programming is the process by which these programs are designed and implemented.
There are many advantages to learning computer programming such as gaining new skills, being able to tell the computer what to do, and becoming better acquainted with computers. Leaning how to program a computer will be highly beneficial for any individual.

What Is Procedure-oriented programming ?

Procedure-oriented programming is a type where a structured approach of creating programs is used. With procedure-oriented programming, a problem is broken up into parts and each part is then broken up into further parts. All these parts are known as procedure. They are separate but work together when needed. A main program centrally controls them all.
Some procedure-oriented languages are COBOL, FORTRAN, and C.

What Is Object-oriented programming ?

A type of programming where data types representing data structures are defined by the programmer as well as their properties and the operations that can be done with them. With object-oriented programming, programmers can also create relationships between data structures and create new data types based on existing ones by having one data type inherit characteristics from another one.
In object-oriented programming, data types defined by the programmer are called classes (templated for a real world object to be used in a program. For example, a programmer can create a data type that represents a vehicle - a vehicle class. This class can contain the properties of a vehicle (color, model, year, etc.) and functions that specify what the vehicle does (drive, reverse, stop, etc.)
Some object-oriented languages are C++, Java, and PHP.

What is a programming language ?

A programming language is a language designed to express computations to be performed by a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine, to express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human communication.
Many programming languages have some form of written specification of their syntax (form) and semantics (meaning). Some languages are defined by a specification document. For example, the C programming language is specified by an ISO Standard. All computer languages are processed by a computer. Computer uses certain programs for processing these programs.

Types of computer languages

As we human beings communicate with each others in different language such as Urdu, French, Punjabi and Arabic etc, similarly to communicate with the computers we have to use specific language. For this purpose, hundreds of languages have been developed in which few of them have gained tremendous popularity and international reputation. Computer Languages can be categorized broadly into three groups.

• Machine Language : The most elementary and first type of computer language, which was invented was machine language which was machine dependent. A program written in machine language cannot be run on another type of computer without significant alterations. Machine language is sometimes also referred as the binary language i.e. the language of 0 and 1 where 0 stands for the absence of electric pulse and stands for the presence of electric pulse. Very few computer programs are actually written in machine language.

• Assembly Language : As computer became more popular, it became quite apparent that machine language programming was too slow and tedious for most programmers. Assembly languages are also called as low level language instead of using the string of number's programmers began using English abbreviation to represent the elementary operation. The language provided and opportunity to the programmers to use English like words that were called MNEMONICS.

• High Level Language : The assembly language started using English like words but still it was difficult to learn these languages. High level languages are the computer language in which it is much easier to write a program than the low level language. A program written in high level language was like a set of instructions. In 1957, a high level language called FORTRAN was developed by IBM which was specially developed for scientists and engineers. Other high level languages are COBOL widely used for business data processing tasks, BASIC language developed for the beginners, C language can be used for any programming task, PASCAL is other high level language that has gained acceptance among programmers.