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Basics of programming languages

Basics of programming languages


Website development is an ever-evolving field where you can always find a lot of opportunities. The field of development has evolved and flourished within different ways and fields since it first appeared in the early nineties. Now in the twenty-first century, web development is still one of the most sought-after skills. To start your career in this field, you need to master website development languages. However, there are many programming languages available today. You may be confused about choosing which languages to learn, especially if you're a beginner.


What is meant by programming language

The purpose of any language, in general, is to be a means of communication. As with programming language, it is the language of the computer and is used to communicate with computers. It consists of a set of instructions (or code) that are written to perform specific actions. Programming languages allow developers to enter instructions into the computer in a way that devices can understand and track. Each programming language also has a special formula, structure, and rules that must be followed so that you can execute code without errors.


Types of programming languages

Each programming language differs from others in terms of concept, structure and formula. To simplify it, we can categorize programming languages into three types, simple language, mid-level language, and high-level language.


1. Simple-level language

A simple-level language is a hardware-based language. As a result, computers can interpret them very quickly, but at the same time they are difficult for humans to read. The advantage of a simple-level language is that it doesn't make processors need compilers so they can run simple-level programs, which makes runtime fast. Simple-level language can be divided into:


Hardware Language:

Hardware language is a first-generation programming language and is represented in binary or hexadecimal formats. Also known as device code, you don't need software tools to convert instructions and can be executed directly. This helps make the code execution process relatively fast.


Assembly Language:

Assembly language is known as a second-generation programming language where instructions include symbolic labels that are skin-readable. A pooled party is required to convert code in assembly language into hardware instruction. The advantages of assembly language also lie in the fact that it needs the least amount of memory and can be implemented in a short time.


2. High-level language

High-level language does not depend on hardware characteristics. It is closer to human languages and uses words, making it easier for developers to write programs. Although a high-level language is easier to read, write, and maintain, it requires a compiler to convert code into a language that machines understand. High-level language can also be divided into:


Procedural Programming Language (POP):

The procedural programming language is based on the concept of procedure calling. It is derived from structured programming. In the procedural programming language, a program is divided into procedures known as routines/functions. This allows you to reuse code in different parts.


Object-oriented programming language (OOP):

OOP is object-based, where programs are divided into parts called objects. The most important feature of object-oriented programming language lies in the possibility of implementing real-world concepts such as inheritance, polymorphism, etc. Code in an object-oriented programming language is also easier to use, implement, modify, and debug. However, it is also fast and efficient.


Natural Language:

Devices use natural language to understand and interpret skin language. They are used to perform tasks such as translation, named entity recognition, automatic summarization, and more.


3. Mid-level language

As its name suggests, a mid-level programming language or intermediate programming language is located between simple-level and high-level programming languages. It is an easy-to-use language that supports high-level programming but at the same time remains close to the hardware language.


The reason why there are some programming languages that work better than others

You may have noticed once that not all programming languages work the same way. Some languages may find faster than others. This is due to the level of simplicity of each language. It basically identifies what a programming language can automatically handle and other matters that require manual intervention. Some of these factors are:


Automatic memory management can cause some languages to be slower than other languages that do not use this process.

If any language has to be compiled, it will take more time as the source code needs to be compiled to become understandable to devices.

The efficiency of the compiler tool affects how fast the process is.


Languages that use a compiler to compile help can cause a slow program as the tool executes program instructions line by line. You also need time to start.