What is a Computer Programming Language?
How do you communicate with other fellow humans? Using a human-based language, similarly, computer programming languages are used to communicate with a computer. But how does a computer understand a programming language? A computer understands only a portion of the language which is called a “binary”. Translating programming language into binary is known as “compiling”.
According to Wikipedia, There are almost 700 programming languages in existence but only a dozen of them are popular and of significant importance.
The computer does not understands English, Hindi, Marathi or Tamil but understands binary which is made up of 0 and 1, because of this there exists a need for some intermediate way of communicating between humans and computers, which we call programming languages.
There are dozens of programming languages today but these programming languages listed below are most important, relevant and in-demand:
- Python 2. Java
- Ruby on Rails
- HTML
- JavaScript
- C
- C++
- C#
- Objective -C
- PHP
- SQL
- Swift
Medium Languages are more closer to machines but High Languages take care of more things. Some languages are highly optimized for machines while some are very flexible for programmers. High-level programming languages are well-optimized and interpreted languages are more flexible and are probably a better choice for a beginner
Java follows the “Write once, run anywhere” principle because it runs on a virtual machine that can run on all sorts of different hardware. Java is the most popular choice for creating Android applications. In large companies, it is used both internally and to power their websites.
C# is Microsoft’s variant of Java, it provides some additional features than Java but lacks multiple platform support.
Java and C# are two very similar high-level programming languages and have more strict rules to prevent programming mistakes. Code in these languages needs to be “compiled” into lower-level code. Both languages are popular in large companies, large projects and in projects that need optimized code.
According to Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developer Survey, JavaScript currently stands as the most commonly-used language in the world (69.7%), followed by HTML/CSS (62.4%), SQL (56.9%), Python (41.6%) and Java (38.4%). JavaScript is used for creating dynamic web pages and modern web applications. JavaScript runs in all browsers, which makes it a good choice of language to learn
PHP is a server scripting language and a powerful tool for making dynamic and interactive Web pages. PHP is a widely-used, free, and efficient alternative to competitors such as Microsoft’s ASP. PHP 7 is the latest stable release.
Python is a general-purpose language that is often used outside of websites. Python aims to be very readable, which makes it simple so a beginner can also understand. Python has the unusual feature of using indentation, this makes the code look less cluttered. Python is a good choice unless you have a specific goal that can fit with one of the other languages only.
The C language can be considered to be the ancestor of modern programming languages because of its influence over programming languages.
Objective-C is Apple’s variant of C for creating applications for Macs and iPhones. It still requires programmers to do certain things that modern languages take care of automatically. Apple recently came out with Swift, as an easier alternative to Objective-C. Swift offers various beginner-friendly features, such as playgrounds for seeing your code execute live. Swift is a good choice if you’re interested in creating iPhone applications.
How do choose a programming language to learn?
Once you consider what you want to study, build, and contribute, you can start thinking about which language to learn. There are always options when choosing a programming language, and there will still be confusion — more on that later. However, every language has strengths and weaknesses.
