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 GENERATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:

A programming language is an artificial formalism in which algorithms can be expressed. It is the communication bridge between a programmer and computer. It is useful to create programs that the computer can understand.

The programming languages are broadly classified into 5 generations:

First Generation Language:

• Computer is an electronic machine. It knows only machine (electronic) codes.
• ON and OFF are known as the Machine codes.
• ON can be indicated with 1 and OFF can be indicated with 0.
• A language which contains only 1’s and 0’s in it is known as Machine Language. It is also known as the First Generation Language(1GL).
• A Machine language is directly understood by the computer.

It has the following format:

Example:

Second Generation Language:

The Language that use mnemonics for computer operations and memory locations is known as Assembly language. It was created in early 1950’s. It is known as the Second Generation Language (2GL).

Assembly language uses an Assembler. An Assembler is a translator. It translates the assembly language instructions into machine understandable form.

Example:

Third Generation Language:

The language that contains English like statements and mathematical symbols is known as a High Level Language. It is known as the Third Generation Language (3GL).

Example:

There are many high level languages like FORTRAN, ALGOL, COBOL, C, C++, JAVA,

C#, etc.

High level languages uses different types of translators to convert the instructions into machine understandable form.

For example: C language uses a Compiler.

Fourth Generation Language:

Fourth Generation Languages are more English like languages. They are especially useful for accessing the databases. 4GL’S can reduce programming effort and time to coding.

SQL, SAS, COGNOS, PHP, etc. are some examples of 4GL’s.

Fifth Generation Language:

The software that automatically generate 3GL code based on the arrangement of the graphical symbols or icons [by the programmer] is known as a Fifth Generation Language. These are the natural languages.

CASE tools are the examples of Fifth generation languages.

CLASSIFICATION OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES:

Programming languages can be classified into low level or high-level languages. Both assembly language and machine language are considered as low-level languages. Low-level languages are the native language of the computer.

Based on the programming paradigm, the High level languages are of three types:

1. Procedural languages

2. Non-procedural languages

3. Problem oriented languages.

1. Procedural programming languages:

In procedural programming, each program can be divided into small procedures (subroutines or functions). This style is easier for programmers.

There are mainly three types:

Algorithmic languages: In this style, the programmer must specify the steps, which the computer has to follow. It uses top-down approach. Languages like C, COBOL, PASCAL and FORTRAN fall into this category.

[Top-down approach: It is a technique of programming that first defines the overall outlines of the program and then fills in the details.]

Object Oriented languages: Object-oriented programming depends on software objects. Data and associated operations are combined into objects. This approach provides reuse of code and design. C++, JAVA, SMALLTALK, etc. are some examples of object-oriented languages

Scripting languages:

A scripting language is a language that is designed for integrating and communicating with other languages.

UNIX shell is one of the earliest scripting languages. Some of the most widely used scripting languages are JavaScript, VBScript, PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, ASP.

These languages are the interpreted languages.

2. Non-procedural languages:

These are the FUNCTIONAL languages. A functional language program consists of built-in functions with arguments. LISP, ML, Scheme, etc. are examples of functional languages.

3. Problem-oriented languages:

These languages provide pre-programmed functions. The user need to write those functions. MATLAB is an example of this category. MATLAB is very popular language among scientists and engineers.