High-level programming language:
A high-level programming language is designed to be easy for humans to read and write. It abstracts away the machine’s hardware, meaning programmers do not need to manage low-level operations, such as memory management or hardware interactions. High-level languages emphasize readability, ease of use, and productivity.
Key characteristics of high-level languages include:
1. Abstraction from hardware: They offer a simpler interface for programming tasks and eliminate the need for detailed management of memory, registers, or other hardware resources.
2. Portability: Programs written in high-level languages can typically be run on different types of computer systems with minimal modification, as they are compiled or interpreted into machine code specific to each system.
3. Ease of use: High-level languages feature syntax and constructs that are closer to natural languages (such as English), making them easier for humans to learn and use.
4. Built-in libraries: They include extensive standard libraries that provide commonly needed functions, such as file handling, networking, and mathematical operations.
Examples of high-level programming languages include:
– Python
– Java
– C++
– Ruby
– JavaScript
These languages stand in contrast to low-level languages (such as assembly language or machine code), which are more closely related to the hardware and require detailed management of resources.
Advantages of high-level programming languages:
a) High-level programming languages are easy to learn, write, and understand.
b) Since this programming language uses a self-describing syntax system, most of the programs are self-explanatory, so there is no need for separate descriptions.
c) In most cases, these programs are short and use simple codes and symbols, so errors can be easily found and corrected.
d) Since the programs in this language are not computer-dependent, the same program can be used on different computers.
e) Since the code is simple, the design is simple, and it is easily modifiable, it takes relatively less time for anyone to solve the problem.
Disadvantages of high-level programming languages:
1. Compilation time: It takes quite a while to convert from high-level language to machine language. This time is quite long for larger or more complex problems.
2. Insufficient object code: Some compilers produce insufficient object code, which results in a slightly longer execution time.
3. Difficulty in debugging: If an error is not easily found once it is found, it is quite difficult to find it because the compilers do not have proper error checking mechanisms and tools.
Some popular programming languages:
1.FORTRAN -Formula Translation
In 1956, IBM introduced FORTRAN as the first high-level programming language suitable for their IBM 704 model. It is mainly used to solve mathematical, scientific and technological problems.
2. ALGOL -Algorithmic Language:
This language, which has almost the same features as FORTRAN, came to the market in 1958. This programming language is also mainly used to solve numerical, computational and scientific problems.
3. PASCAL :
Named after the famous French mathematician Blaise Pascal, this programming language was introduced by Nicolas Rieth in 1968. Using this language, the programmer can determine and organize the structure of the data as per his own wishes.
4. COBOL -Common Business Oriented Language:
COBOL was introduced in 1958 as a database management language for all these daily business needs, mainly for commercial purposes, where continuous exchange of data and various tasks are required.
5. PL ONE -Programming Language -1
Pre-1960, various programming languages were used for various tasks. For example, FORTAN or ALGOL for mathematical tasks, COBOL for commercial tasks, etc. But with all these needs, IBM introduced a new programming language PL ONE with some language interpreter features in the market by 1960.
6. BASIC -Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code:
This programming language is mainly used in time-sharing computer systems. It is a very simple interactive programming language. Even people who do not know programming can write large programs using this language. It is a general-purpose programming language that is useful for various purposes, such as mathematical calculations, scientific problem solving, meeting commercial needs, etc.
7. LISP- List Processing:
This language is used in various activities related to the use of various signals, mainly letters or words, such as games, word-sentence and human relationship analysis, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence application, etc.
8. PROLOG:
Apart from general scientific problem solving or business and mathematical calculations, this programming language was introduced in 1970 by Philip Russell of the Marshall University Artificial Intelligence Group to determine the relationship between different classes and objects for completely new types of applications such as robotics, artificial intelligence or relational decision-making. Japan is using this highly advanced programming language in all its fifth generation projects.
9. C Family -C, C++, C#:
Dennis Ritchie of AT & Bell Laboratories invented the C language in early 1972. It was originally designed for system programming. More specifically, it was designed to be used on the Unix operating system. A special feature of this language is its ability to perform various tasks and its relationship with the Unix operating system. It can also perform many low-level tasks efficiently. For example, performing information and knowledge-related tasks where information and data are stored in the computer’s memory. Its strong statements, portability, and other important features that a good high-level programming language should have. Later, more specialized languages such as C++, C#, etc. emerged based on the C language as needed. Although C is a system programming language, it has gained immense popularity as a widely used general-purpose language.
10. Java:
A major challenge for software developers in the Internet world today is to create application software that can be downloaded to any operating system and any network, regardless of its purpose and scope. People want software that can seamlessly work on any platform, and with any other application software. Mainly with this purpose in mind, in 1990, James Gosling and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems invented the machine-independent programming language Java. The main goal of this language is to create software that is suitable for millions of different computers, operating systems, and networks in the Internet world. Almost immediately after its invention, Java became an unrivaled language for web-based services.
Java is a compiled and interpreted language at the same time. Java source code is directly converted to two-dimensional code, just like a normal machine language. Where C or C++ source code works on a specific model of processor, Java source code provides instructions for a virtual machine in the universe. Java is a global programming language today for its portability, speed, and security. On the other hand, C or C++ has very low security, and even portability is quite low, but it is true that Java has adopted a lot of syntax from C or C++.
11. Scripting Language: This language is used to control multiple applications at once. Scripts are different from the source code of any programming language because they are written using different languages and are mostly used by ordinary users.
The computer can easily understand high-level programming languages such as C, Java, BASIC, Cobol, etc. through its various compilers or interpreter programs. Similarly, the HTML language that we use to create that page is also a type of language where different web browsers understand our instructions and work accordingly. But one of the main weaknesses of that language is that it is one-way. That is, this website cannot exchange any instructions or any two-way interaction or information with the users. A more complex programming language that is used for such two-way interaction and information exchange on the website is called scripting language. However, it is much simpler than the basic high-level languages.
A special purpose language is used to control web pages, most notably JavaScript. It is a popular scripting language developed by Microsoft and loosely coupled with Java and Visual Basic. Unix-based AWK, sed, Grep, etc. are quite old scripting languages for processing textual records.
However, currently, the most widely accepted and powerful general-purpose scripting language, overcoming the weaknesses of various scripting languages, is PERL (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language). Similar but somewhat less popular languages are Python, Ruby, MEL, Blender, etc.
