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    • PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

    Monday, April 11, 2011

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    A programming language is an artificial language designed to express computations that can 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.
    The earliest programming languages predate the invention of the computer, and were used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms and player pianos. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, mainly in the computer field, with many more being created every year. Most programming languages describe computation in an imperative style, i.e., as a sequence of commands, although some languages, such as those that support functional programming or logic programming, use alternative forms of description.
    A programming language is usually split into the two components of syntax (form) and semantics (meaning) and many programming languages have some kind of written specification of their syntax and/or semantics. Some languages are defined by a specification document, for example, the C programming language is specified by an ISO Standard, while other languages, such as Perl, have a dominant implementation that is used as a reference. 

    So far 5 generations of programming languages have been defined. These ranges from machine level languages (1GL) to languages necessary for AI & Neural Networks (5GL). A brief introduction of each of the five generations is given below:

    1.First Generation Programming Language

    First generation of programming language refers to machine language. Machine language is lower level language which uses object code (some times also known as machine code). Object code is the combination of binary digits. These languages directly talk to hardware.

    2.Second Generation Programming Language

    Second generation of languages is also low level language which is known as assembly language. Assembly languages are the interface between Machine level languages and High level languages.

    3.Third Generation Programming Language

    Third Generation programming languages are High level Programming languages like JAVA & C.

    4.Fourth Generation Programming Language

    This is the set of current generation programming languages. These languages are similar or closer to human languages.

    General characteristics of 4GL are:

    i.Closer to human languages
    ii.Portable
    iii.Database supportive
    iv.simple and requires less effort than 3GL
    v.Non procedural

    Different types of 4GL are:

    a. Query Generator
    b. Report generator
    c. Form Generator
    d. Application Generator
    e. GUI Generator
    f. Relational Database Manager

    5.Fifth Generation Programming Language

    Languages used for writing programs for Artificial Intelligence, Neural Network, Plasma Computing etc. come under 5GL. This is the future of programming language.


    Abbreviations used:

    1. AI-Artificial Intelligence
    2. 1GL-First Generation Programming Language
    3. 2GL-Second Generation Programming Language
    4. 3GL-Third Generation Programming Language
    5. 4GL-Fourth Generation Programming Language
    6. 5GL-Fifth Generation Programming Language

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