COMPUTER LANGUAGES In all over the world, language is the source of communication among human beings.

Different countries/regions have different languages. Similarly, in order to communicate with the computer user also needs to have a language that should be understood by the computer. For this purpose, different languages are developed for performing different types of work on the computer.Basically, languages are divided into two categories according to their interpretation. 1. Low Level Languages. 2. High Level Languages. Low Level Languages Low level computer languages are machine codes or close to it. Computer cannot understand instructions given in high level languages or in English. It can only understand and execute instructions given in the form of machine language i.e. language of 0 and 1. There are two types of low level languages: Machine Language. Assembly Language Machine Language: It is the lowest and most elementary level of Programming language and was the first type of programming language to be Developed. Machine Language is basically the only language which computer Can understand. In fact, a manufacturer designs a computer to obey just one Language, its machine code, which is represented inside the computer by a String of binary digits (bits) 0 and 1. The symbol 0 stands for the absence of Electric pulse and 1 for the presence of an electric pulse . Since a computer is Capable of recognizing electric signals, therefore, it understand machine Language. Advantages of Machine Language

i) It makes fast and efficient use of the computer. ii) It requires no translator to translate the code i.e.Directly understood by the computer Disadvantages of Machine Language: i) All operation codes have to be remembered ii) All memory addresses have to be remembered. iii) It is hard to amend or find errors in a program written In the machine language iv) These languages are machine dependent i.e. a particular Machine language can be used on only one type of computer Assembly Language It was developed to overcome some of the many inconveniences of machine language. This is another low level but a very important language in which operation codes and operands are given in the form of alphanumeric symbols instead of 0s and ls. These alphanumeric symbols will be known as mnemonic codes and can have maximum up to 5 letter combination e.g. ADD for addition, SUB for

subtraction, START,LABEL etc. Because of this feature it is also known as Symbolic Programming Language. This language is also very difficult and needs a lot of practice to master it because very small English support is given to this language. The language mainly helps in compiler orientations. The instructions of the Assembly language will also be converted to machine codes by language translator to be executed by the computer. Advantages of Assembly Language i) It is easier to understand and use as compared to machine language. ii)It is easy to locate and correct errors. iii) It is modified easily Disadvantages of Assembly Language i) Like machine language it is also machine dependent. ii) Since it is machine dependent therefore programmer Should have the knowledge of the hardware also. High Level Languages High level computer languages give formats close to English language and the purpose of developing high level languages is to enable people to write programs easily and in their own native language environment (English). High-level languages are basically symbolic languages that use English words and/or mathematical symbols rather than mnemonic codes. Each instruction in the high level language is translated into many machine language instructions thus showing one-to-many translation Types of High Level Languages Many languages have been developed for achieving different variety of tasks, some are fairly specialized others are quite general purpose. These are categorized according to their use as a) Algebraic Formula-Type Processing. These languages are oriented towards the computational procedures for solving mathematical and statistical problem Examples are BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). FORTRAN (Formula Translation). PL/I (Programming Language, Version 1). ALGOL (Algorithmic Language). APL (A Programming Language). b) Business Data Processing: These languages emphasize their capabilities for maintaining data processing procedures and files handling problems. Examples are:

COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language). RPG (Report Program Generator

b) String and List Processing: These are used for string manipulation including search for patterns, inserting and deleting characters. Examples are: LISP (List Processing). Prolog (Program in Logic). Object Oriented Programming Language In OOP, the computer program is divided into objects. Examples are: C++ Java e) Visual programming language: these are designed for building Windows-based applications Examples are: Visual Basic Visual Java Visual C

Advantages of High Level Language Following are the advantages of a high level language:

User-friendly Similar to English with vocabulary of words and symbols Therefore it is easier to learn. They require less time to write. They are easier to maintain. Problem oriented rather than 'machine' based.

Program written in a high-level language can be translated into many machine language and therefore can run on any computer for which there exists an appropriate translator. It is independent of the machine on which it is used i.e.Programs developed in high level language can be run on any Computer

Disadvantages of High Level Language A high-level language has to be translated into the machine language by a translator and thus a price in computer time is paid.

The object code generated by a translator might be inefficient Compared to an equivalent assembly language program Types of computer languages As we human beings communicate with each others in different language such as Urdu, French, Punjabi and Arabic etc. Similarly to communicate with the computers we have to use specific languages and for this... This tutorial focuses on:

Web languages Software languages The different generations of languages Procedure oriented programming Object oriented programming

Web languages Used for creating and editing pages on the web. Can do anything from putting plain text on a webpage, to accessing and retrieving data from a database. Vary greatly in terms of power and complexity.

HTML Hyper Text Markup Language. The core language of the world wide web that is used to define the structure and layout of web pages by using various tags and attributes. Although a fundamental language of the web, HTML is static - content created with it does not change. HTML is used to specify the content a webpage will contain, not how the page functions. Learn HTML at our HTML tutorials section.

XML Extensible Markup Language. A language developed by the W3C which works like HTML, but unlike HTML, allows for custom tags that are defined by programmers. XML allows for the transmission of data between applications and organizations through the use of its custom tags.

Javascript A language developed by Netscape used to provide dynamic and interactive content on webpages. With Javascript it is possible to communicate with HTML, create animations, create calculators, validate forms, and more. Javascript is often confused with Java, but they are two different languages. Learn Javascript at our Javascript tutorials section.

VBScript Visual Basic Scripting Edition. A language developed by Microsoft that works only in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser and web browsers based on the Internet Explorer engine such as FlashPeak's Slim Browser. VBScript Can be used

to print dates, make calculations, interact with the user, and more. VBScript is based on Visual Basic, but it is much simpler. Learn VBScript at our VBScript tutorials section.

PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (it's a recursive acronym). A powerful language used for many tasks such as data encryption, database access, and form validation. PHP was originally created in 1994 By Rasmus Lerdorf. Learn PHP at our PHP tutorials section.

Java A powerful and flexible language created by Sun MicroSystems that can be used to create applets (a program that is executed from within another program) that run inside webpages as well as software applications. Things you can do with Java include interacting with the user, creating graphical programs, reading from files, and more. Java is often confused with Javascript, but they are two different languages. Learn Java at our Java tutorials section.

Software languages Used for creating executable programs. Can create anything from simple console programs that print some text to the screen to entire operating systems. Vary greatly in terms of power and complexity.

C An advanced programming language used for software application development. Originally developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in the 1970's and designed to be a systems programming language but since then has proven itself to be able to be used for various software applications such as business programs, engineering programs, and even games. The UNIX operating system is written in C.

C++ Descendant of the C language. The difference between the two languages is that C+ + is object-oriented. C++ was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup at Bell Labs and is a very popular language for graphical applications.

Visual Basic A language developed by Microsoft based on the BASIC language . Visual Basic is

used for creating Windows applications. The VBScript language (also developed by Microsoft) is based on Visual Basic.

Java A powerful and flexible language created by Sun MicroSystems that can be used to create applets (a program that is executed from within another program) that run inside webpages as well as software applications. Things you can do with Java include interacting with the user, creating graphical programs, reading from files, and more. Java is often confused with Javascript, but they are two different languages. Learn Java at our Java tutorials section.

The different generations of languages There are currently five generations of computer programming languages. In each generation, the languages syntax has become easier to understand and more humanreadable.

First generation languages (abbreviated as 1GL) Represent the very early, primitive computer languages that consisted entirely of 1's and 0's - the actual language that the computer understands (machine language).

Second generation languages (2GL) Represent a step up from from the first generation languages. Allow for the use of symbolic names instead of just numbers. Second generation languages are known as assembly languages. Code written in an assembly language is converted into machine language (1GL).

Third generation languages (3GL) With the languages introduced by the third generation of computer programming, words and commands (instead of just symbols and numbers) were being used. These languages therefore, had syntax that was much easier to understand. Third generation languages are known as "high level languages" and include C, C++, Java, and Javascript, among others.

Fourth generation languages (4GL) The syntax used in 4GL is very close to human language, an improvement from the pervious generation of languages. 4GL languages are typically used to access databases and include SQL and ColdFusion, among others.

Fifth generation languages (5GL) Fifth generation languages are currently being used for neural networks. A nueral network is a form of artifical intelligence that attempts to imitate how the human mind works.

Procedure-oriented programming A type of programming where a structured method of creating programs is used. With procedure-oriented programming, a problem is broken up into parts and each part is then broken up into further parts. All these parts are known as procedures . They are separate but work together when needed. A main program centrally controls them all. Some procedure-oriented languages are COBOL, FORTRAN, and C. Object oriented programming A type of programming where data types representing data structures are defined by the programmer as well as their properties and the things that can be done with them. With object-oriented programming, programmers can also create relationships between data structures and create new data types based on existing ones by having one data type inherit characteristics from another one. In object-oriented programming, data types defined by the programmer are called classes (templates for a real world object to be used in a program). For example, a programmer can create a data type that represents a car - a car class. This class can contain the properties of a car (color, model, year, etc.) and functions that specify what the car does (drive, reverse, stop, etc.) Some object-oriented languages are C++, Java, and PHP.