What are programming languages?

Computer programming languages allow us to give instructions to a computer in a language the computer understands. Just as many human-based languages exist, there are an array of computer programming languages that programmers can use to communicate with a computer.

The portion of the language that a computer can understand is called a “binary”. Translating programming language into binary is known as “compiling”. Each language, from C Language to Python, has its own distinct features, though many times there are commonalities between programming languages.

These languages allow computers to quickly and efficiently process large and complex swaths of information. For example, if a person is given a list of randomized numbers ranging from one to ten thousand and is asked to place them in ascending order, chances are that it will take a sizable amount of time and include some errors.

These are most popular programming languages!

C language
C Language

C is a general-purpose, procedural computer programming language supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, while a static type system prevents unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions, and has found lasting use in applications previously coded in assembly language.


Such applications include operating systems, as well as various application software for computers ranging from supercomputers to embedded systems. C was originally developed at Bell Labs by Dennis Ritchie between 1972 and 1973 to make utilities running on Unix. Later, it was applied to re-implementing the kernel of the Unix operating system.

C Language

Facts about C

  • C was invented to write an operating system called UNIX.
  • C is a successor of B language which was introduced around the early 1970s.
  • The language was formalized in 1988 by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI).
  • The UNIX OS was totally written in C.
  • Today C is the most widely used and popular System Programming Language.
  • Most of the state-of-the-art software have been implemented using C.
  • Today's most popular Linux OS and RDBMS MySQL have been written in C.

Why use C?

C was initially used for system development work, particularly the programs that make-up the operating system. C was adopted as a system development language because it produces code that runs nearly as fast as the code written in assembly language. Some examples of the use of C might be

  • Operating Systems
  • Language Compilers
  • Assemblers
  • Text Editors
  • Print Spoolers
  • Network Drivers
  • Language Interpreters and more...

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Python
Python Language

Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python's design philosophy emphasizes code readability with its notable use of significant whitespace. Its language constructs and object-oriented approach aims to help programmers write clear, logical code for small and large-scale projects. Python is dynamically typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming.


Python is often described as a "batteries included" language due to its comprehensive standard library. Python was conceived in the late 1980s as a successor to the ABC language. Python 2.0, released 2000, introduced features like list comprehensions and a garbage collection system capable of collecting reference cycles. Python 3.0, released 2008, was a major revision of the language that is not completely backward-compatible, and much Python 2 code does not run unmodified on Python 3.

Cplusplus
C++ Language

C++ is a general-purpose programming language created by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significantly over time, and modern C++ has object-oriented, generic, and functional features in addition to facilities for low-level memory manipulation. It is almost always implemented as a compiled language and many vendors provide C++ compilers, including the Free Software Foundation, LLVM, Microsoft, Intel, and IBM, so it is available on many platforms.

JavaScript
JavaScript

Although JavaScript is a scripting language, we have to mention it because JS is the most used language in 2018. Javascript is high-level, interpreted programming language that conforms to the ECMAScript specification. JavaScript has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object-orientation, and first-class functions. Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web. JavaScript enables interactive web pages and is an essential part of web applications. The vast majority of websites use it and major web browsers have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it.


JavaScript

Who uses it?

  • Professions and Industries

    JavaScript developers, Web developers, software engineers. Used by employers in Information Technology, Engineering, Design, Marketing, Finance and Healthcare.

  • Major Organizations

    WordPress, Soundcloud, Khan Academy, Linkedin, Groupon, Yahoo and many others...

  • Specializations and Industries where JS is used most

    Front End Website Development, Gaming Development

What makes learning it important?

JavaScript is used primarily in Web development to manipulate various page elements and make them more dynamic, including scrolling abilities, printing the time and date, creating a calendar and other tasks not possible through plain HTML. It can also be used to create games and APIs.

  • Some facts about JavaScript.

    • Along with HTML an CSS, JavaScript is one of the three main things of the www (World Wide Web). It enables interactive web pages and thus is an essential part of web applications. A majority of websites use it and all major web browsers have a devoted JavaScript engine to execute it.
    • JavaScript is single threaded. This is the reason lots of people who use multi-threaded programming thinks its working is slow as it would not be able to make use of all the cores of the CPU properly.
    • Despite the fact that there are similarities between JavaScript and Java, including language name, respective standard libraries and syntax, these two languages are distinct and differ significantly in design.
    • Like all other scripting languages, arrays and objects can be created with a brief shortcut syntax. These literals structure the basis of JSON data format.
    • JavaScript supports regular expressions in a manner similar to Perl, which provides a concise and powerful syntax for text manipulation that is more sophisticated than the built-in string functions.
    • There is a CSRF attack known as “JavaScript hijacking” in which a tag on an attacker’s site damages a page on the victim’s site that returns private information such as JavaScript or JSON (Reference: Wikipedia)
    • JavaScript is supported by all modern Web browsers with the built-in interpreters.

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Java
Java language

Java is a general-purpose programming language that is class-based, object-oriented (although not a pure OO language, as it contains primitive types), and designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible. It is intended to let application developers write once, run anywhere (WORA), meaning that compiled Java code can run on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation. Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of the underlying computer architecture. The syntax of Java is similar to C and C++, but it has fewer low-level facilities than either of them.

Java Language

Who uses it?

  • Professions and Industries

    Software engineers, Java developers. Used by employers in communications, education, finance, health sciences, hospitality, retail and utilities.

  • Major Organizations

    Some of them are V2COM, Eclipse Information Technologies, eBay, Eurotech...

  • Specializations and Industries

    Internet of Things (IoT), Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Computing.

What makes learning it important?

Java is used to develop enterprise-level applications for video games and mobile apps, as well as to create web-based applications with JSP (Java Server Pages). When used online, Java allows applets to be downloaded and used through a browser, which can then perform a function not normally available.

  • Java facts

    • Currently, about 3 billion mobile phones are working in Java, as well as 125 million TV sets and each Blu-Ray player. This language is continually ranked first in the rankings of software developers as the best choice of programming languages.

    The original name for Java was Oak. It was eventually changed to Java by Sun's marketing department when Sun lawyers found that there was already a computer company registered as Oak. But a legend has it that Gosling and his gang of programmers went out to the local cafe to discuss names and ended up naming it Java. There seems to be some truth in this as the "0xCafeBabe" magic number in the class files was named after the Cafe where the Java team used to go for coffee.

    James Gosling was working at Sun Labs, around 1992. Gosling and his team was building a set-top box and started by "cleaning up" C++ and wound up with a new language and runtime. Thus, Java or Oak came into being.

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C sharp
C# Language

C# (pronounced C sharp) is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language encompassing strong typing, lexically scoped, imperative, declarative, functional, generic, object-oriented (class-based), and component-oriented programming disciplines. It was developed around 2000 by Microsoft within its .NET initiative and later approved as a standard by Ecma (ECMA-334) and ISO (ISO/IEC 23270:2018). C# is one of the programming languages designed for the Common Language Infrastructure.

C# Language

Who uses it?

  • Professions and Industries

    C# developers, automation test engineers, software engineers, senior .net Web developers. Used by employers in Information Technology, Engineering, Design, Professional Services, Management and Quality Control.

  • Major Organizations

    Some of them are Microsoft Intel, Hewlett Packard

  • Specializations

    Windows-based platforms

What makes learning it important?

C# helps developers create XML web services and Microsoft .NET-connected applications for Windows operating systems and the internet.

  • C# facts

    • The name of the C Sharp language is stimulated by the musical notation. Here sharp, represent that the that the written note should be made a semitone higher in pitch.

    C# language is good for developing games. It is also used by Unity(the majority leader in commercial game engines) to develop games.

    C# language contains highest class that supports Generics and Templates and is used to developing web pages, android application, etc.

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What language should I learn first?

If you are new to programming and you want to either become professional or you just want to write programs for fun, you should start with easy ones and there are definately some languages that are less complex than the others. My personal recommendation is C. After you learn C pick any object-oriented language you are interested in (c# /c++ for games, python for machine learning etc.), and you will not have hard time learning it.

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