What is Programming Language and its types

What are Programming Languages?

A programming language is a computer language that is designed to communicate with a machine especially a computer. Programming languages can be used to design or create programs or algorithms to control the behavior of the machine.

Programming is the process of converting system specifications into machine instruction that produced desired results. A programming language is a set of symbols that instructs the hardware of a computer to perform a specified task. There are a set of rules to use these symbols called syntax.

A computer can only do what a programmer directs it to do. In order to perform a particular task, a programmer writes an order of instructions which is called programs (set of instructions). 

There are various programming languages that can be used by the programmer to give instructions to the computer.

Types of Programming Languages

Since human communicates with each other with the help of languages they understand like English, Hindi, French, Spanish, etc. Similarly, Computers also communicate with each other in the language they understand. They only understand binary language ( 0 and 1).

We need a language that is understood by the computer to communicate with the computer. They only understand binary language ( 0 and 1). But it is difficult to code in binary language or machine language. 

That's why we need some programming language that is close to humans so that it becomes easier for us to code but it is not understood by the computer. So, there is a requirement of translating the code into machine code or binary language so that the computer system can easily understand.

There are compiler, interpreter and assembler that are used in translating the code written in a high-level language or low-level language into machine code. Assembler translates the code written in assembly language and interpreter or compiler translates code written in a high-level language or middle-level language.

The term 'generation' of computer languages is used to categorize the generic enhancement. Each generation indicates some progress which makes the computer easier to use. The generations are classified as follows

 1. First-generation - Machine Language
 2. Second generation - Assembly Language
 3. Third generation - High-Level Language
 4. Fourth-generation - Including a range of query languages
 5. Fifth-generation - Artificial Intelligence Language

Uses of Programming Languages

Mobile application development

Programming languages are used in making mobile applications. Developing mobile applications is not so easy because there are several operating systems for several mobile phones.

Different operating system needs different languages for developing mobile applications. The operating system is nothing but the software in a device that makes hardware performing different tasks. It resides in between the application you create and the hardware.

The famous operating systems are Android and IOS. Android is used in different mobiles like Redmi, Samsung, etc but IOS is used in Apple. You will need either Java or Kotlin to develop Android applications.

To develop an IOS application, you will need an Objective-C or Swift programming language. Recently, JavaScript or Dart programming languages are introduced that will help you develop both mobile applications Android as well as IOS.

Web Development

Web development includes two inter-related things or parts which are front-end development and back-end development. First, there is front-end development in which you create or design the outlook of any websites, or you create an application that will run on the browser.

You can use HTML, CSS and Javascript languages to create or design the websites. The other part of web development is back-end development. This is related to the server. It runs the website and presents it to the outside world. It is responsible for showing the different webpages to the user on different URLs.

It is also responsible for handling databases if the websites and managing the database. PHP, Elixir, Python, c#, Ruby, etc are the programming languages that can be used as back-end development.

Game Development

Game development is one of the best track many developers enjoy it and develop the game. A game engine is required for developing any game. A game engine is a software that is used as an infrastructure for developing games.

Epic game is a game engine on which Fortnight is built. The programming languages that are mostly used for developing games are C++, C#, etc because it needed a lot of memory optimization and fast performance for graphics.