CSC - Types of Programming Languages

Types of languages; 1st Gen, 2nd Gen, 3rd Gen, 4th Gen, procedural, non-procedural, object-oriented, scripting

Programming is the process of writing computer programs
A programming language is a constructed language that is designed specifically to communicate with a computer system
Programming languages help us to translate our ideas and thoughts in to functionial computer programs

First Generation (1GL) Machine Language

Started in the 1940s
First generation programming languages are machine-level languages, ie to make the CPU work and connect hardware. Not many apps in those days.
This means that there were no compilers or assemblers to translate human-readable code in to binary
Programming instructions (in the form of binary) were entered through the front panel switches of a computer system
Instructions were entered directly in to the CPU for processing
As these instructions were binary based, programming was much harder to interpret and understand for the human programmer
Pros; achieved the objective to get CPU working
Cons; many errors, slow compared to these days, limited memory in those days, difficult of programmers
Examples; Motorola 68000 used in early macs, Intel 8088 used in early window machines
Want to write code in 1GL? Learn binary here

Started in the 1950s
The second generation of programming languages introduced an assembler
This assembler's job was to convert code that could be written and understood by a human in to binary that could be intepreted by a computer
The assembler's ability to read these instructions is entirely dependent on the processor's architecture and make
2GL programming languages allow for better understanding and interpretation for the human programmer
Pros; programmer could read it and make it
Cons; Had poor program flow control
Examples; RISC, CISC, x86
Examples of code include identifying the memory location for placement of numbers, the calculation and next is the result and the storage location for that result.

Started in the 50s
Third generation programming languages are known as high-level languages
These languages are much more machine independent and programmer friendly
Has program flow control such as if-else statements, arrays and more structured programming
High-level languages are often English-based and provide the programmer with a broad understanding of the code
Pros; programmer friendly
Cons; need to know lots of programming
Examples; C, C++, Java and BASIC are third generation programming languages
Examples of difference between 2GL and 3GL see here

Started in the 1970s
They are built to work more with databases
Pros; programmer friendly, support databases, support web-development
Cons; increased developer learning
4GL programming languages can be seen as more programmer-friendly 3GL languages
They focus on bringing power and versatility to programming (e.g. the ability to adapt to more types of processors / computers)
These languages are written to operate with larger collections of data rather than just bits and bytes
Examples are SQL, Coldfusion, CSS
Example syntax; Extract all Sales WHERE price < $200

Procedural Languages
These languages are seen as the traditional programming languages
They're based on algorithms and logical step-by-step processes
Procedural languages make use of control structures such as iteration and selection to perform a task
In these languages, the programmer tells the program what and how to do it
Example languages: C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, ALGOL
Non-procedural Languages
These languages only care for the what of the program as opposed to how to get the results
Non-procedural languages are used to specify the conditions that the answer should produce, but now how to go about it
These languages are generally constructed in the form of commands entered by the programmer
Example languages: SQL, Visual Basic

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a modern concept of programming
It focuses on data structures that contain data in the form of fields (known as attributes)
Code is written in the form of procedures known as methods
An object is a structure that contains both data and procedures
A class defines the data format and available procedures (methods) for a given type or class of object
These languages work by allowing objects to interact with one another
Example languages: Python, C++, Objective-C, Delphi, Java, Swift, Ruby, PHP

Unlike programming languages, scripting languages are interpreted rather than compiled
These languages are interpreted one command at a time
They're commonly used to add functionality and enhanced features to websites
Unlike other programming languages, web-based scripts are run on the end-user's web browser as opposed to the server
Example languages: JavaScript, ASP, JSP, PHP, Perl, Python

Read a List of Programming Languages on WikiPedia here
Read the article Procedural and Non-Procedural Languages from EnggPedia here
Read an Introduction to Object Oriented Programming Concepts and More on Code Project here
Read the differences on Scripting and Programming here

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