programming language

created by HoserHead

(thing) by blahedo (?) (print) ? (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:51:34

Since computers' internals are all zeroes and ones, it well behooves us humans to come up with some more convenient way to tell the computers what to do. Thus programming languages. By learning a few arcane incantations, you can command your computer to do ANYTHING! Well, unless there is a bug, of course. Some people think we just be able to speak naturally to the computer and have it understand.

(thing) by nilram (?) (print) ? (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 8:51:34

High level abstraction for specifying the data manipulations that occur inside a computer. Different programming languages embody different ideas on good abstractions. The most common language paradigms are object-oriented, procedural, and functional. Examples of object-oriented languages are Simula, Java, and Smalltalk. Examples of procedural languages are Fortran, Cobol, and C++. Examples of functional languages are Lisp, and Forth.

See also religion.

(thing) by graydon (?) (print) ? (I like it!) Sat Nov 13 1999 at 9:03:13

A specification of tokens, a grammar, and (if you're lucky) formal semantics. Usually degrades into a lot of hand waving and holy wars. Computers ultimately read things written in programming languages, but most of the fuss is about whether or not a human enjoys reading, writing, and maintaining the programs.

(idea) by funnytoes (6 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Tue Mar 28 2000 at 19:03:11

One of the more irrelevant parts of designing a computer system. All too often, the programming language is chosen even before the requirements of the computer system are known.

Why? Well, the considerations in choosing a particular programming language include the following:

the problem domain: Unarguably, some programming languages are better-suited to particular problem domains than others. However, the real restriction here is availability. If you could get OO-COBOLscript, I'm sure it would be a reasonable choice for web development in some places (see available resource below).
the exising system: it may be that the development means changes to an existing system. Budgetry restraints usually preclude rewriting in a different programming language.
available resource: Further constraints in choosing a programming language arise from the day-to-day availability of appropriately-skill programmers. Your fancy new ASP server might be best written in C++ but all your C++ coders may be working on something more important. You either delay the project or rethink.

So, even before you've got the user requirements written, you know it's being coded in Visual Basic...

(idea) by Ender02 (5 y) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Thu Sep 21 2000 at 21:39:09

List of Programming Paradigms
Imperative
Object-oriented
Functional
Logic
List of Programming Languages
A
ABC
ABEL
Ada
ADL
Agora
Aleph
Algol 60
Algol 68
AML
APL
AppleScript
Argus
Assembly
Awk
B
Basic
Befunge
BETA
Bigwig
Blue
Brain
C
C
C++
Caml
Cecil
Charity
CHILL
CLAIRE
Clarion
Clean
Clipper
CLU
Cobol
Cocoa
Component Pascal
C Sharp
Curl
D
Delphi
DOS Batch
Dylan
E
E
Eiffel
ElastiC
Elegant
Elf
Emerald
Erlang
Escher
Euphoria
F
Forth
Fortran
G
Gema
Goedel
H
Haskell
HTML
HTMLScript
HyperCard
I
ICI
Icon
IDL
Intercal
J
Java
JavaScript
JJ
L
LabVIEW
Lagoona
Leda
Limbo
Lisp
Logo
Lua
M
m4
MATLAB
Mercury
Miranda
Miva
ML
Modula-2
Modula-3
Mumps
N
Napier88
NQL
O
Oberon
Objective-C
Objective Caml
Obliq
Occam
Omega
OPAL
Oz
P
Pascal
Perl
PHP
Pike
PL
Pliant
PL-SQL
Postscript
PowerBuilder
Prograph
Prolog
Proteus
Python
Q
Quikjob
R
REBOL
Rexx
Rigal
RPG
Ruby
S
SAS
Sather
Scheme
Self
SETL
SGML
Simula
Sisal
S-Lang
Slim
Smalltalk
Snobol
SQL
Squeak
T
Tcl-Tk
Tempo
TOM
TRACK
Turing
T3X
U
UML
Unlambda
V
VBA
VBScript
Verilog
VHDL
Visual Basic
Visual DialogScript
Visual FoxPro
W
Winductor
X
XML
Y
YAFL
Yorick

(thing) by CThru (7.3 y) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Fri Mar 23 2001 at 7:53:28

There are three main types of programming languages.

Imperative programming languages are the most commonly used languages. Examples of this type of language are C, C++, Ada, Fortran, Algol, Java, Python, Perl, and so on. Programming in an imperative language is generally easier than in functional or declarative languages since it involves a more linear process of solving problems. These languages have been evolving more and more toward the object-oriented paradigm.

Functional programming languages are different from imperative languages in the fact that everything is written and utilized as functions. Lisp, Scheme, ML, and Haskell are examples of functional programming languages. The artificial intelligence programming domain has been heavily influenced by Lisp, and some of its successors. Over time some of the functional programming languages have begun to add certain concepts from imperative languages, but they still remain remarkably different in almost every area.

Declarative programming languages, more often called logic programming languages, consist of declarations -- statements or propositions -- written in mathematical logic. The only real language of note within this type of languages is Prolog, which stands for programming logic. Prolog is based on predicate calculus and an inference rule called resolution, which only works on a special kind of proposition called a Horn clause. The process of resolution is really proof by contradiction. Declarative programming languages require a totally different mindset to program in than imperative or functional languages. A declarative language allows a programmer to describe the desired results using declarations, and the computer figures out how to achieve those results. An imperative language makes the programmer tell the computer both what they want, as well as the exact way to achieve the goal.

Programming languages as a whole can also be divided into two groups. Compiled languages, and interpreted languages. Examples of compiled languages are C++, Ada, and Fortran. Interpreted languages include Lisp, and Perl. Java does not fall completely into either of these categories as the source code is compiled into Java bytecode which, when executed, is interpreted by the Java Virtual Machine. Python is also slightly skewed in the fact that it is interpreted, but can interface with or be interfaced with compiled languages. Python can also be compiled into Java bytecode. Thus, Java and Python beg the addition of a third group of languages that are both compiled and/or interpreted.

printable version
chaos

Brainfuck	C++	C	INTERCAL
How to exchange two variables without using a third	Unlambda	Befunge	Python
Perl	Pascal	compiled	Java
assembly language	Common LISP	Eiffel	Holy Wars
The Programming Languages Genealogy Project	interpreted language	COBOL	grammar
ln	LISP	FORTRAN	geek in training

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