All about Programming Languages - Computer Software, Computer Awareness | Famous Books for UPSC Exam (Summary & Tests) PDF Download

All about Programming Languages 

Language is a means by which we communicate with others. Each language has its own specialties. For example English Language has 26 alphabets, Uppercase and Small case, words with different meaning and pronunciation, sentences, grammar etc.

What is Programming Language?

It is a Language we used to communicate with Computers. There are lot of programming languages with its own purposes and syntax.

Why we need Programming Languages?

It is because Computer does not have a brain to take its own decisions and act accordingly. It does not have the capability to respond to the directions and instructions given by the human beings in their language. It needs to be programmed before use. We need a different Language to Communicate with the Computers. These are known as Computer Programming Languages. Program is a set of instructions given to the Computer so that it can handle different situations and scenarios.

How a Computer Program works?

Computer is having a Microprocessor made of millions of transistors. It can handle basic logical and arithmetic operations and accept different inputs and produce different outputs. A Microprocessor is having all resources for handling data, performing logical and arithmetic operations on the data, produce different output based on the operations in it and to control different input output peripherals connected to it. Now programs are instructions which describe the sequence and use of different resources in the Microprocessor to carry out certain tasks.

The Language used to program a Microprocessor is called Machine Level language, which is the very basic Computer Programing Language. It is also known as Binary Level Language (A Language composed of only 1s and 0s). However it is a tedious task to program a computer using Machine Level Language as it lengthy, time consuming and complex. However we should remember that the old computers were programmed using this Language.

To make Programming easier, an Assembly Level Language is introduced. These are certain English words used to Program and process data in a Micro Processor. The Assembly Level Languages are converted into Hex Code (A number system with base 16) using a compiler. An assembler is a program which converts the Machine Code into Hex Code.

Then comes the Middle Level Language. The main purpose of these language is to make programing easier and less complex. These programs are easily understandable by human being.  However the Microprocessor in Computers can understand only Machine Level Languages. Now who will translate the Middle level Languages to Machine Level Languages? The Software used to convert the middle level language into Machine Level language is called Compiler. Interpreter is another Software which is used to Execute the Computer Program directly without converting it into Machine Level Language. Debuggeris a Software used to check the syntactical mistake (grammar mistakes in Computer Programming) in Middle Level Language before converting it into Machine Level Language.

There are different High Level languages which makes the programming more easier as its syntax and usage of words are almost similar to common English Language. However the pain of conversion of this High Level Language to Machine Level Language will be handled by the Compiler.

Some Low Level Languages: PL/S, BLISS, BCPL, ALGOL, C

Some Middle Level Languages: C#, C++, Java,

Some High Level Languges: Python, Ruby, and CommonLisp, SQL

Some Web Designing Languages: PHP, Ruby

Some Hardware Design Languages: VHDL, Verilog (This Program is exclusively used to design Integrated Circuits(IC Chips))