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Chapter

LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Programming Language Differentiation

Programming
Language
 COSC 65 – PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Types of Programming Language

Cavite State University – Silang Campus

Biga 1, Silang Campus
Table of Contents
Generations of Programming Languages ...................................1
First Generation Language (Machine language) ............................ 1
Second Generation language (Assembly Language) ..................... 1
Third Generation languages (High-Level Languages) .................... 2
Fourth generation language (Very High-level Languages) ............. 2
Fifth generation language (Artificial Intelligence Language) ........... 3
Types of Programming Languages .............................................4
Procedural Programming Language .............................................. 4
Functional Programming Language ............................................... 5
Object-oriented Programming Language ....................................... 5
Scripting Programming Language .................................................. 5
Logic Programming Language ....................................................... 5
The Difference Between Different Programming Languages .....6
C++ Language ............................................................................... 6
C Language ................................................................................... 6
Pascal Language ........................................................................... 6
Fortran Language .......................................................................... 7
Java Language .............................................................................. 7
Perl Language ............................................................................... 8
PHP Language .............................................................................. 8
LISP Language .............................................................................. 8
Scheme Language ......................................................................... 9
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Module
C O S C 6 5 – P R O G R A M M I N G L A N G U A G E

Generations of
Programming Languages

P
rogramming languages have been developed over the year in a phased manner.
Each phase of developed has made the programming language more user-
friendly, easier to use and more powerful. Each phase of improved made in the
development of the programming languages can be referred to as a generation.
The programming language in terms of their performance reliability and robustness
can be grouped into five different generations.

1. First generation languages (1GL)

2. Second generation languages (2GL)
3. Third generation languages (3GL)
4. Fourth generation languages (4GL)
5. Fifth generation languages (5GL)

First Generation Language (Machine language)

The first-generation programming language is also called low-level programming
language because they were used to program the computer system at a very low level of
abstraction. i.e. at the machine level. The machine language also referred to as the
native language of the computer system is the first-generation programming language.
In the machine language, a programmer only deals with a binary number.

Advantages of first generation language

• They are translation free and can be directly executed by the computers.

• The programs written in these languages are executed very speedily and
efficiently by the CPU of the computer system.

• The programs written in these languages utilize the memory in an efficient

manner because it is possible to keep track of each bit of data.

Second Generation language (Assembly Language)

The second-generation programming language also belongs to the category of low-
level- programming language. The second-generation language comprises assembly

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languages that use the concept of mnemonics for the writing program. In the assembly
language, symbolic names are used to represent the opcode and the operand part of the
instruction.

Advantages of second generation language

• It is easy to develop understand and modify the program developed in these

languages are compared to those developed in the first-generation
programming language.

• The programs written in these languages are less prone to errors and therefore
can be maintained with a great case.

Third Generation languages (High-Level Languages)

The third-generation programming languages were designed to overcome the various
limitations of the first and second-generation programming languages. The languages
of the third and later generation are considered as a high-level language because they
enable the programmer to concentrate only on the logic of the programs without
considering the internal architecture of the computer system.

Advantages of third generation programming language

• It is easy to develop, learn and understand the program.

• As the program written in these languages are less prone to errors they are easy
to maintain.

• The program written in these languages can be developed in very less time as
compared to the first and second-generation language.

Examples: FORTRAN, ALGOL, COBOL, C++, C

Fourth generation language (Very High-level Languages)

The languages of this generation were considered as very high-level programming
languages required a lot of time and effort that affected the productivity of a
programmer. The fourth-generation programming languages were designed and
developed to reduce the time, cost and effort needed to develop different types of
software applications.

Advantages of fourth generation languages

• These programming languages allow the efficient use of data by implementing

the various database.

• They require less time, cost and effort to develop different types of software
applications.

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 • The program developed in these languages are highly portable as compared to
the programs developed in the languages of other generation.

Examples: SOL, CSS, coldfusion

Fifth generation language (Artificial Intelligence Language)

The programming languages of this generation mainly focus on constraint
programming. The major fields in which the fifth-generation programming language
are employed are Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Neural Networks

Advantages of fifth generation languages

• These languages can be used to query the database in a fast and efficient
manner.

• In this generation of language, the user can communicate with the computer
system in a simple and an easy manner.

Examples: mercury, prolog, OPS5

Programming Language and Different Types

Nowadays, there are numerous programming languages are becoming more general
and all-purpose, but these languages have their specialties, and each language has its
own advantages and disadvantages. Usually, programming languages can be classified
into a few types, however, these languages support multiple programming style. Every
year there are a number of programming languages are implemented, but few
languages are becoming very popular which may use by a professional programmer in
their career.

Programming languages are used to control the performance of the computer or

machine. At present, computer programmer has many choices to choose the language,
but there are many differences between programming languages. So, this article gives a
brief information regarding what are the different types of programming languages,
differences between programming languages and types of programming languages in
useful ways.

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What is Programming Language?

A programming language is a notation designed to connect instructions to a machine

or a computer. Programming languages are mainly used to control the performance of
a machine or to express algorithms. At present, thousand programming languages have
been implemented. In the computer field, many languages need to be stated in an
imperative form, while other programming languages utilize declarative form. The
program can be divided into two forms such as syntax and semantics. Some languages
are defined by an SO standard like C language.

Types of Programming Languages

Procedural Programming Language

The procedural programming language is used to execute a sequence of statements
which lead to a result. Typically, this type of programming language uses multiple
variables, heavy loops and other elements, which separates them from functional
programming languages. Functions of procedural language may control variables, other
than function’s value returns. For example, printing out information.

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Functional Programming Language
Functional programming language typically uses stored data, frequently avoiding loops
in favor of recursive functions. The functional programing’s primary focus is on the
return values of functions, and side effects and different suggests that storing state are
powerfully discouraged. For example, in an exceedingly pure useful language, if a
function is termed, it’s expected that the function not modify or perform any o/p. It
may, however, build algorithmic calls and alter the parameters of these calls. Functional
languages are usually easier and build it easier to figure on abstract issues, however,
they’ll even be “further from the machine” therein their programming model makes it
difficult to know precisely, but the code is decoded into machine language (which are
often problematic for system programming).

Object-oriented Programming Language

This programming language views the world as a group of objects that have internal
data and external accessing parts of that data. The aim this programming language is to
think about the fault by separating it into a collection of objects that offer services
which can be used to solve a specific problem. One of the main principle of object
oriented programming language is encapsulation that everything an object will need
must be inside of the object. This language also emphasizes reusability through
inheritance and the capacity to spread current implementations without having to
change a great deal of code by using polymorphism.

Scripting Programming Language

These programming languages are often procedural and may comprise object-oriented
language elements, but they fall into their own category as they are normally not full-
fledged programming languages with support for development of large systems. For
example, they may not have compile-time type checking. Usually, these languages
require tiny syntax to get started.

Logic Programming Language

These types of languages let programmers make declarative statements and then allow
the machine to reason about the consequences of those statements. In a sense, this
language doesn’t tell the computer how to do something, but employing restrictions on
what it must consider doing.

To call these groups “types of language” is really a bit confusing. It’s easy to program in
an object-oriented style in C language. In truth, most of the languages include ideas and
features from various domains, which only helps to increase the usefulness of these
types of languages. Nevertheless, most of the programming languages do not best in all
styles of programming.

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The Difference Between Different Programming
Languages
C++ Language
The C++ language has an object-oriented structure which is used in large projects.
Programmers can collaborate one program into different parts or even one individual
work on each part of the program. The structure of object oriented also permit code to
be reused many times. This language is an efficient language. But, many programmers
will disagree.

C Language
The C language is a basic programming language and it is a very popular language,
particularly used in game programming, Because C language includes the additional
packing of the C++, every programmer uses this language because it makes programs
faster. However, the value of this language gives the reusability of C++ to get the slight
increase in performance with C language.

Pascal Language
Pascal language is mostly a teaching language and few industries uses this language to
write the programs. This language tends to use keywords instead of symbols and braces
in C language. So this language is very easy for beginners to understand than a
programming language like C, C++. Borland is a compiler software company, which is
using Delphi programming language for industrial strength. Delphi is an object-
oriented language of Pascal, and presently Borland compilers only use it.

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Fortran Language
Fortran language is a number crunching language and still it is used by scientists. This
language allows different sizes of variables up to the memory limit in the machine. This
language is suitable for engineers, who have to calculate values with high precision.
Program in Fortran is inflexible and sometimes it makes difficult to read.

Java Language
The Java language is a multi-platform language that’s particularly helpful in networking.
Of course, mostly this language is used on the web with Java applets. However, this
language is used to design cross platform programs, Since it similar to C++ in structure
and syntax. For C++ programmers, Java language is very easy to learn and it offers
some advantages provided by object oriented programming. Like reusability and it can
be difficult to write efficient code in Java. But, nowadays the speed of the Java language
has increased and 1.5 version offers some good features for easy program making.

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Perl Language
Perl language is a file management language for UNIX. But it is more popular for its
common gateway interface programming (CGI). It is a term for programs that web
servers can perform to allow additional capabilities of web pages. Pearl language is a
method for searching text and it is used for useful server functions and other databases,
and it is very easy to pick up the fundamentals if you have any experience in any
language. As a CGI language, web hosting services select Perl language over C++
language. Because, the web hosts can review Perl script files. Since they are text files,
when C++ is compiled.

PHP Language
The PHP language is used to design web pages and sometimes it is also used as
scripting language. This language is designed to develop a rapid website, and as a result
comprises features which make it easy generate HTTP headers and link to databases.
As a scripting language, it includes a set of components permit the programmer to
easily get up to speed. However, it has more sophisticated object-oriented features.

LISP Language
LISP language is mostly used in computer science research and it stores all data in lists
such as arrays. The syntax of list is very simple and easy to make for developers to
implement structures.

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Scheme Language
The scheme language is an alternate of LISP language, and it has a simpler syntax and
features. Any project under the scheme language will result in the re implementation of
most of the LISP language. But, this is very popular introductory language in the
computer science department of MIT’s. This language easily solves the problems
instead of worrying about syntaxes of programming language.

This is all about the differences between programming languages and few major
programming languages are discussed. And, the remaining languages like Tcl, Python,
Smalltalk, COBOL, C# and Prolog are similar to the above languages which are
discussed. But selecting the suitable language for developing a program or application
is very important

References
admin. (2019, December 9). What is a Programming Language and Different Types.
Retrieved from TypesnUses: https://www.typesnuses.com/types-of-
programming-languages-with-differences/
Jain, P. (2018, June 26). Generations of programming language. Retrieved from Include
help: https://www.includehelp.com/basics/generations-of-programming-
language.aspx