Types Of Computer Programming Languages
What are the types of programming languages? Communication is very vital in any given environment. Be it among human beings or electronic systems. The need to fully communicate with the computer system has since left the world with numerous types of computer programming languages which cannot be discussed exhaustively at this stage. However, there are those types of computer programming languages which have proved to be very out standing among the hundreds of the existing programming languages.
There is no set standard of classifying thee types of computer programming languages as they vary in performance as well as the structure. All the exiting types of computer programming languages can be broadly classified as machine language, assembly language or high level language. However it should be understood at this early stage that a computer understands only the machine language. Therefore, there’s need to use assemblers and compilers while using other types of computer programming languages.
Machine language is rarely used due to its slow rate and cumbersome in nature. It uses two binary digits; 0 and 1 where 1 represents presence of electrical signals while 0 absences of electrical signals. Therefore type of computer programming language is also referred to as the binary language.
Assembly language which uses abbreviations called MNEMONICS was developed to replace the machine language. Although it was a simpler language as compared to the machine language, it was also tiresome and time consuming and thus a need to develop other types of computer programming language; the high level language.
The HLL types of computer programming language was first introduced by the IBM Company and the first HLL produced was the
FORTRAN. These types of computer programming language are widely used since they are very simple to use, to debug besides having a well-defined format.
Different type of computer programming languages can also be classified as;
The object oriented languages
These types of computer programming languages include the C, Python, Visual basic and the java programming languages. Specification of data structure and operations is a must.
The structured languages
The various types of computer programming languages in this category include the C, PASCAL etc. They are used to handle specific problems which must be simplified in small and simple structures. It’s very procedural type of computer programming language.
Various type of computer programming language varies in both efficiency and complexity depending on where the computer program is used. This again leads to another way of classifying various programming language as web based programming languages or software languages.
The web based types of computer programming languages include:
• The Hyper Text Markup Language
• The Extensive Markup Language
• The JavaScript
• The Visual Basic Scripting Edition
• The Hypertext Preprocessor
• Java
The software types of computer programming languages include;
• C
• C++
• Visual Basic
• Java
Human beings have always tried to utilize all the resources at their disposal to come up with the types of computer programming language generations to suit all their necessary demands. These types of generation include;
• 1st generation (1GL): The primitive language used and consist of 1s and 0s example is the machine language
• 2nd generation (2GL): Involves use of symbols. Example is the assembly language
• 3rd generation (3GL): Uses words and commands. They have definite syntax. Examples are the C, C++, JAVA etc.
• 4th generation (4GL): Copies human language. Examples are the SQL ColdFusion etc.
• 5th generation (5GL): Are only applied to networks which tend to imitate human mind(the neural network)
