Computer Programming Languages – Types and Examples

Programming language is the way by which programmers communicate with computers. They are mostly a set of instructions that they give to the computer for completing a certain task. 

They are essential for developing applications and websites. And it’s just not one language. 

Like humans have many languages to communicate, computers also have many. But the common element between them is binary, the part which the computer truly understands. They allow computers to efficiently progress all the information and perform accordingly. 

There are thousands of programming languages in the world now due to technology evolution and innovation. Programmers can choose which one they want according to the kind of job they need to complete. For example – 

• For Application and Program Development – C, C#, C++, D, Java, Swift, and Tcl.
• For Artificial intelligence development – AIML, C, C#, C++, Prolog, and Python.
• For Database development – DBASE, FoxPro, MySQL, SQL, and Visual FoxPro.
• For Game development – C, C#, C++, DarkBASIC, and Java.
• For Computer drivers – Assembly and C.
• For Internet and web – HDML, HTML, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, and XML.
• For Script development – AutoHotkey, awk, bash, Batch file, Perl, Python, and Tcl.

Types of Programming Languages of Computer

The types of programming language are – 

Low-level programming language

These languages are dependent on the machines. They are very fast because computers don’t need a compiler or interpreter to understand the language.

It is of two types –

1. Machine Language

The machine code is an easy-to-read language because of its binary form. Because there is no need for a translator, the program execution is very fast.

2. Assembly Language

A language for a specific processor, is in a symbolic and human-understandable form. There is a need for an assembler to convert it into machine language. It needs less memory space and less execution time to function.

High-level programming language

It is mainly to design user-friendly software programs and websites. The compiler converts it into machine language at the time of execution. It is easy to understand and maintain. It types are according to the task needed to complete like –

1. Procedural Oriented programming language

This language takes inspiration from structured programming as it divides the program into routines or functions. Software programmers use it when working with IDE, Adobe Dreamweaver, or Microsoft Studio. It allows easy tracking of programs and reusing of codes in different programs. It includes languages for education and business as well.

Some examples of Procedure Oriented Programming Language are –

a. FORTRAN

One of the first algorithmic languages designed by John Backus in 1957. It is ideal for scientific computations organizing numbers in multidimensional arrays. It has conditional IF statements, repetitive loops, and a GOTO allowing program execution. It makes mathematical programs easy and translates well into machine language. It is still very famous and keeps on evolving.

b. ALGOL

Algorithmic language came from European scientists during the late 1950s as a computational language. It has a block structure that has data and instructions and the program structure. This gave way to create a large program with small blocks. Pascal and Ada take inspiration from this language only.

c. COBOL

Common business-oriented language is the go-to language for large companies since its inception in 1959. It uses English notation as it comes from the US to create a standard language system. It has data records to help businesses with organization and manipulation.

d. BASIC

Beginner’s all-purpose symbolic instruction code is 1960s language by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. It came out to help the non-computer science majors with very simple data structures and notation. It follows the line-to-line translation, making it easy to find errors. It was simpler initially but with innovations, it’s not very beginner-friendly anymore.

e. Pascal

A 1970 programming language by Niklaus Wirth of Switzerland. It focuses on using loop control structures similar to ALGOL. But its complex data handling is a lot better than algorithm language. It became very famous during the late 1970s and ’80s and is now available on all computers.

f. SQL

The structured query language is ideal for organizing database information. It creates a relational database becoming very popular amongst the companies dealing with commercial database programs.

g. Go

An open-source language for building simple and reliable software. Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike, and Ken Thompson made it in 2007. It has many inbuilt tools and is very fast and easy to use. But it does not support generics or error handling and lacks a framework.

h. LOGO

A language by Seymour Papert that came out in the 1960s. It has conventional syntax and uses a simple method for generating graphics. Turtle graphics is the method for writing body-centered instructions, moving objects on the screen. This allows programmers to come up with new patterns.

i. Hypertalk

A language specifically designed for Apple by Bill Atkinson using English syntax. This language allows combining text, graphics, and audio quickly into linked stacks. It became famous in the 1980s and early ’90s for classroom presentations. But due to the fall of Apple in the 1990s, this language became obsolete.

2. Object-Oriented Programming language

These languages have objects, smaller parts of information to implement real-world entities. They are reusable, easy to use, and very fast in execution. It follows a bottom-up approach becoming easy to maintain and modify.

Some examples of OOP Language are –

a. Python

A user-friendly and open-source language that came out in the 1990s. It follows line-by-line code making it easy to find errors. It is reusable because of platform independence.

AI, Machine learning, GUI applications, etc use this language only to function. But it is not suitable for mobile applications and gaming and needs an interpreter to function.

b. Java

A language by Sun Microsystems that came out in 1995 as being simple, secure, and independent. Now Oracle is managing the language that is present in banking, retail, IT, web, etc. No explicit pointers are becoming secure.

It can perform multiple tasks together and is reusable. But it takes up more memory without a backup feature and is also slower.

c. C#

A language that is present with XML-based services mainly to improve productivity in web applications. It is easier to use if the user is familiar with other languages as it is open-source, becoming compatible with windows. It is a pure object-oriented language and is sharper than C++. It has a strong memory facility but is less flexible due to the Microsoft base. It is hard to write and maintain in general.

d. Ruby

Ideal for object-oriented programming, this language came out in 1993 for front and back web development. Common Gateway Interface scripts use this language as it supports many GUI tools. It has small codes and lines becoming easy to use. But it is slower than other languages and the codes are hard to debug.

e. Ada

A language by the US defense that came out in the 1980s and could put data and operate into independent modules. Initially, it was not object-oriented but Ada 95 provided objects. It is now present for engineering large programs.

f. Visual Basic

It is an extension of BASIC with objects and event-driven programming. There are buttons, menus, and other elements of graphical user interfaces becoming ideal for small program routines.

g. Objective-C

A simple language that uses the system of message passing, where it can accept or reject the commands. There is flexibility with dynamic typing and is ideal for beginner programmers.

Apple came up with it in 1983 for software development. Industries like IT, Healthcare, and Design use this language frequently. But it is mainly for developing IOS software.

h. Swift

Another language by Apple that came out in 2014 as a multi-paradigm programming language for iOs. It has a better framework and infrastructure with an advanced compiler. It is user-friendly with easy syntax and is ideal for production programming. Again it is mainly for iOS software development.

3. Declarative Languages

Nonprocedural languages are more commanding than following commands. They are either logic (PROLOG) or functional language with a difference between specification and implementation.

PROLOG works on logical relations, similar to SQL. The inference engine executes the program and answers the query. It is commonly present in natural language processing and AI.

The functional languages apply the mathematical style and commonly present as research tools, in automated mathematical theorems and other commercial projects.

R is an example of functional languages that came out in 1993 by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman. It supports data wrangling, easy interface, platform independence, and an open-source. But it doesn’t get along with 3D graphics and is slow.

4. Scripting Languages

These languages are for small programming problems like writing operating system utilities or file manipulation in general.

Some examples of Scripting Languages are –

a. Perl

A language of the 1980’s initially used for the UNIX operating system. It began as a scripting language with many ways to state common operations. But in the 1990s, it became famous as a system-programming tool.

b. JavaScript

A language of the 1990s that is editable from both client-side as well as server-side.

Netscape Navigator web browser came out with it to work on complex web page features. It allows users to create websites, apps, infographics, etc. It allows adding behavior and interactivity on the websites making them attractive and rich.

The loading time is less and it is simple yet versatile. But it only works on browsers becoming less secure and doesn’t support multiple inheritances.

5. World Wide Display Languages

a. HTML

A hypertext markup language is for encoding web pages designed by Tim Berners- during the 1980s. It allows the creation of particular tags in the website and puts everything in a layout. It has anchors and tags with URLs to make a complete web page.

b. XML

An extensible markup language is for documents published on the Web. It has doc entities with a mark at the beginning and the end. Thus, it has more links than HTML for document subsection. It has rules for web interpretation and how it should look at the display.

c. PHP

Hypertext Preprocessor is an open-source scripting language for creating websites. Rasmus Laird designed it in 1994 and allows integration of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. It is secure and easy to use with powerful online libraries. It is operating system friendly and supports cloud services as well. But it is hard to maintain and cannot handle large applications.

6. Document Formatting Languages

These languages are for specifying the location of printed text and graphics. This may be under text formatting notation, page description language, or markup languages.

Some examples of Document Formatting Languages are –

a. TeX

A 1986 language by Donald Knuth, allows plain text formatting commands that go for printing directly. It is very flexible in terms of fonts, colors, layouts, etc. It has other variations too like LaTex and BibTex for managing other features like bibliography and paragraph setting.

b. PostScript

A language by adobe system that came out in the 1980s as a page-description language. It works on documents that the users can understand for personal use as well by using microprocessors. It allows modifying texts and colors using reverse polish notation.

Text formatting programs, word processors, or graphic display tools are the ones using it commonly. It is highly compatible with high-resolution laser printers.

c. SGML

Standard generalized markup language works on descriptive markup and specifies document type definitions. It decides the type of document and what elements to display in it. The programs to determine the placement and translation for printing.

7. Natural language

This language uses human languages like English, Russian, etc. Computers need it to understand human instructions. The programmers use it for translation, summarization, relationship extraction, and segmentation. Communication in this language is very fast.

Middle-level programming language

These are the languages between low-level and high-level programming languages. As the name suggests, it has features of both and is very user-friendly. Some examples are –

1. C

A very popular language that is simple and flexible. It is a design by Dennis M Ritchie that came out in 1972. Applications like Text Editors, Compilers, Network devices, etc. use it for designing.

It is easy to use for even complex calculations and operations. It has a dynamic memory as well. But it is hard to find errors in it and it doesn’t support constructors, destructors, etc.

2. C++

A software developing language by Bjarne Stroustrup that came in 1980. It is similar to C but supports exception handling, type checking, etc. It is portable, simple, and supports object-oriented programming.

There is a high-level abstraction but is not secure like Python or Java. It does not support garbage collection and is hard to debug.

List of computer programming languages

1. ActionScript
2. ALGOL
3. Ada
4. AIML *
5. Altair BASIC
6. Assembly
7. AutoHotkey
8. Babel
9. BASIC
10. Batch file
11. BCPL
12. BeanShell
13. Brooks
14. C
15. C#
16. C++
17. CL
18. Clojure
19. COBOL
20. CoffeeScript
21. Common Lisp
22. CPL
23. CSS *
24. Curl
25. Curry D
26. DarkBASIC
27. Dart
28. Datalog
29. dBASE
30. Dylan
31. EuLisp
32. Elixir
33. F
34. F#
35. FORTRAN
36. FoxPro
37. Franz Lisp
38. GameMaker
39. Go
40. GW Basic
41. Haskell
42. HDML *
43. HTML *
44. InterLisp
45. ksh
46. Java
47. JavaScript
48. JCL
49. Julia
50. Kotlin LeLisp
51. Lisp
52. LiveScript
53. LOGO
54. Lua
55. MACLISP
56. Matlab
57. Metro
58. MUMPS
59. Nim
60. Objective-C
61. OCaml
62. Pascal
63. Perl
64. PHP
65. Pick
66. PureBasic
67. Python
68. Prolog
69. QBasic R
70. Racket
71. Reia
72. RPG
73. Ruby
74. Rust
75. Scala
76. Scheme
77. Scratch
78. SGML *
79. Simula
80. Smalltalk
81. SPL
82. SQL *
83. Stanford LISP
84. Swift
85. Tcl
86. Turbo Pascal
87. True BASIC
88. VHDL
89. Visual Basic
90. Visual FoxPro
91. WML *
92. WHTML *
93. XLISP
94. XML *
95. YAML *
96. ZetaLisp

Conclusion

These were some of the important programming languages that software uses nowadays. If you are preparing for a government competitive exam, you don’t need to get into much detail but just know the concept from above.

Exams like RRB, Banking, and Insurance might have questions from this topic but a very basic one. So no need to worry about the jargon and just focus on grasping the concepts.