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The Computer Inside Out: Programming Languages
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Programming Languages
Programming languages can be classified from the viewpoint of readability. Languages whose readability is close to that of machine languages are called low-level languages. Assembly languages are an example. A language whose code is more similar to regular English is considered a "high-level" language. The languages below are listed in the historical order that they were created in.
Fortran, which originally stood for IBM Mathematical FORmula TRANslation System but has been abbreviated to FORmula TRANslation, is the oldest of the established ``high-level'' languages, having been designed by a group in IBM during the late 1950s. By the mid 1970s virtually every computer, mini (desktop) or mainframe (server), was supplied with a standard-conforming FORTRAN 66 language processing system.The American National Standards Institute published a new standard, ANSI X3.9-1978 (an updated version of FORTRAN). This standard was subsequently (in 1980) adopted by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as an International Standard (IS 1539 : 1980). The language is commonly known as FORTRAN 77 (since the final draft was actually completed in 1977) and is the version of the language now in widespread use. Fortran 90 is a major development of the language but nevertheless it includes all of FORTRAN 77 as a strict subset and such that a program conforming to the 77 standard will be a valid Fortran 90 program. In addition to the old FORTRAN 77 command set, Fortran 90 allows programs to be expressed in ways that are more suited to a modern computing environment and has rendered many of the mechanisms that were appropriate in FORTRAN 77 obsolete.
Fortran programming example Fortran tutorial
Algol
ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) is one of several high level languages designed specifically for programming scientific computations. It started out in the late 1950's, first formalized in a report titled ALGOL 58, and then progressed through reports ALGOL 60, and ALGOL 68. ALGOL's machine independence permitted the designers to be more creative, but it made implementation much more difficult. Although ALGOL never reached the level of commercial popularity of FORTRAN and COBOL, it is considered the most important language of its era in terms of its influence on later language development.
Two Algol sample programs Algol tutorial
Cobol
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was developed in 1959 by CODASYL (Conference on Data Systems Languages). CODASYL wanted COBOL programs to run with minimum modification on different computer models/brands. They also wanted COBOL to be an easily readable language such as ordinary English. Since 1959, there have been many revisions made to COBOL.
Cobol tutorial
LISP
LISP (LISt Processor) is a language that is powerful in manipulating lists of data or symbols rather than processing numerical data. In this sense, LISP is unique. It requires large memory space and, since it is usually processed by an interpreter (line-by-line, rather than precompiled), it is slow in executing programs. LISP was developed in the late 1950's and early 1960's by a group headed by John McCarthy, then a professor at the MIT. At that time, LISP was radically different from other languages, such as FORTRAN and ALGOL. Several versions have been developed from the LISP 1.5 introduced by McCarthy; Common LISP, released in 1984, is becoming the de facto standard of LISP.
LISP tutorial
Pascal
PASCAL, developed by Niklaus Wirth of the Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland in the late 1960's, is a programming language named after the 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascal provides a teaching language that highlights concepts common to all computer languages. It also standardizes the language in such a way that it makes programs easy to write. Strict rules make it difficult for the programmer to write bad code!
Pascal tutorial
QBasic
BASIC stands for "Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."
John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College developed Qbasic in the mid-1960s. QBasic is a compiling high-level programming language. It is easy to use and consists of hundreds of commands in the fields of graphics, files, text processing and variables.
Qbasic tutorial
Prolog
Prolog is a simple but powerful programming language originally developed at the University of Marseilles, as a practical tool for programming logic. From a programmer's point of view the major attraction of the language is the ease of programming. It is possible to write clear, readable, concise programs with few errors. Prolog is especially suitable for high-level symbolic programming tasks and has been applied in many areas of Artificial Intelligence research.
Help for users familiar with Prolog Prolog tutorial
C/C++
Although C/C++ is considered to be a high-level language, it has many low-level features, such as the ability to directly handle addresses and bits. C is, however, highly portable. Dennis M. Ritchie of AT&T Bell Laboratories developed it in 1972. The operating system UNIX has been written almost exclusively in C; previously, operating systems were almost entirely written in assembly (machine code). C has been extensively used on personal and large computers.
Downloadable tutorials C/C++ tutorials
Ada
Ada is a high-level language whose development was initiated in 1975 by the Department of Defense. Ada was intended to be a common language that could be used on the department's computers, which were produced by many different manufacturers. The first version of the language specification was completed in 1979. Formally named in Ada in honor of Augusta Ada King, daughter of Lord Byron, Ada is similar to Pascal but contains many additional features that are convenient for the development of large-scale programs. However, users may feel uneasy while using Ada, because of the abundance of its features. Thus, Ada has not been widely spread in programs other than those of the Department of Defense.
There are no Ada tutorials for it isn't in use anymore.
Perl
Written by Larry Wall in January 1988, Perl (Practical Extension and Reporting Language) is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (small, elegant, concise).
Perl tutorial
AppleScript
AppleScript is the free and powerful programming language that comes with every Macintosh. Companies and individuals all over the world and in dozens of industries use AppleScript to reduce the time it takes to develop applications, perform repetitive computer tasks, automate activities, manage web sites, access databases, control scientific research and do countless other tasks. AppleScript is a very high level programming language. Programmers use natural, English-like commands. AppleScript code is easier to write, and much easier for others to read than lower level languages such as C, C++ or Pascal.
AppleScript tutorial
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is a language developed by Microsoft, which is based on the original BASIC language. This language makes tasks such as designing an application (shaping the way it looks) easier, and due to the very nature of BASIC, the code is relatively easy to understand. The first version of Visual Basic came out in the early '90s, and it is still part of Microsoft's development package.
Visual Basic Official page Visual Basic tutorial
Delphi
We were unable to find the history of this language, as it is rather recent.
Delphi tutorial
Java
The most common Java programs are applications and applets. Applications are stand-alone programs, such as the HotJava browser. Applets are similar to applications, but they don't run stand-alone. Instead, applets adhere to a set of conventions that lets them run within a Java-compatible browser.
Java tutorials Java's official webpage
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